m 



THE 

LIFE AND DEATH 

OF 

.T. DeWitt Talmage, 

BY 

REV. JOHN LOBB. 

3 O 3 « O 

* 3 *i • ° a 

Copyright, 1902, by J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company. 



New York: 
J, S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
57 Rose Street. 



{THE 



J Two Cop! 



ESS, 



INGRESS, 



[APR. 26 1902 

COf*VR»HT ENTRY 



XXa Ho\ 



LIFE AND DEATH 

OF 

Rev. T.DeWitt Talmage, D.D. 



CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 

Thomas De Witt Talmage was born in Boundbrook, 
Somerset County, New Jersey, January 7, 1832. He was 
the youngest of twelve children, of whom five were girls. 
In personal appearance he is a little above the medium 
height, with blue eyes and sandy hair and complexion. He 
dresses very plainly but neatly, and in private life rather 
resembles an off-hand merchant than a clergyman. His 
father (David T. Talmage) was noted for his remarkably 
good judgment, firmness, deep piety and activity in Chris- 
tian life. His mother, Catherine Talmage, was a woman 
of great strength of character and sweetness of disposition, 
and a frequent attendant upon the sick and the. poor within 
the circle of her influence. Dr. Talmage says : " At eighty 
three years of age my father exchanged earth for heaven. 
The wheat was ripe, and it has been harvested. No paint- 
er's pencil, no poet's rhythm could describe that magniri 



8 LIFE OP REV. T. DE WITT TALMAQS3, 



cent sunsetting. It was no hurricane blast let loose, but g 
gale from heaven, that drove into the dust the blossoms of 
that almond tree! His death furnished lessons for me to 
learn, and for the many friends who knew him. As the 
child of his old age, I pay an humble tribute to my father, 
who took me into his watchful care, and to my mother, 
whose parental faithfulness succeeded in bringing my erring 
feet to the Cross, and kindled in my soul the anticpation 
of immortal blessedness! I must therefore not fail to speak 
of my father's death. Methinks the old family Bible 
which I brought away from home would rebuke my silence, 
and the very walls of my youthful home would tell the 
story of my ingratitude. Therefore, I -must speak, even 
with a broken utterance, and in terms which may seem too 
strong for some who have never had the opportunity of 
gathering the fruit of a luxuriant almond tree. In the 
death of my father I discover the beauty of old age. 

" Solomon announced that ' the almond tree shall flourish.' 
Now, it is well known that in the month of January Pal- 
estine is adorned with the blossoming of the almond tree. 
It breathes its life into that winter month, as a promise of 
God sometimes lights up and sweetens the coldness and des- 
olation of a sorrowing spirit. It was not a useless tree, 
made just to bloom and die, or, like the willow by the 
water-courses, to stand weeping into the stream; but it dis- 
puted with terebinth and cassia, for a high place in the com- 
merce of the world. Its wealth bore down the dromeda- 
ries of the desert, and in ships of Tarshish struggled with 
the sea. Its rugged trunk parted into gracefulness of branch, 
and burst into a lavishness of bloom, till the Temple imi- 
tated it in the golden candlestick, and Jeremiah beheld its 
branches shaking in his dream! The pomegranate had more 
pretentious color, and rung out its fragrance with red bios- 



LIFE OF BEV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 9 

soming bells; but the almond tree stood in simple white, as 
if, while born of earth, it aspired to take on the apparel of 
those who dwell in Raiment exceeding white,' so as no 
fuller of earth can white them ! When the almond tree 
was in full bloom it must have looked like some tree before 
our window on a winter's morning, after a nightfall of 
snow, when its brightness is almost insufferable, every 
stem a white and feathery plume. A row of almond trees 
in full bloom must have roused up all the soul's sense 
of purity; when they began to scatter their blossoms, as 
one by one they fell, it must have seemed like the first 
struggling flakes of a chill day, coming thicker and faster, 
until the herbage, still deeply tinged with autumnal color- 
ing, is covered, and the hills and mountains, that were of 
Bcarlet, become as white as snow. 

"Now the reader will see Solomon's meaning. He was 
given a full-length portrait of an aged man. By striking 
figures of speech he sets forth the trembling and decrepi- 
tude, and then comes to describe the whiteness of his locks, 
by the blossoming of the almond tree. It is the master 
touch of the picture, for the reader will see in that one sen- 
tence not only the appearance of the hair, but an announce- 
ment of the beauty of old age. The white locks of a bad 
man are but the gathered frosts of the second death, but 
a 'hoary head is a crown of glory' if it be found in the 
way of righteousness. There may be no color in the cheek, 
no luster in the eye, no spring in the step, no firmness in 
the voice, and yet around the head of every old man whose 
life has been upright and Christain there hovers a glory 
brighter than ever shook on the white tops of the almond 
tree. If the voice quiver it is because God is changing it 
into a tone fit for the celestial choir. If the back stoop, it 
is only because the body is just about to lie down in peaceful 



10 LIFE OF REV. T. BE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



sleep. If the hand tremble, it is because God is unloosing 
it from worldly disappointments, to clasp it on ringing harp 
and waving palm. If the hair is turned, it is only the gray 
dawn of Heaven's day streaming through the scant locks. 
If the brow, once adorned by a luxuriance of auburn or 
raven, is smitten with baldness, it is only because God is 
preparing a place to set the everlasting crown. The falling 
of this aged Christian's staff will be the signal for the 
heavenly gate to swing open. The scattering of the almond 
blossoms will only discover the setting fruit. Elijah's 
flaming equipage were too tame for this ascending spirit. 
The arms of Jesus are grander than bounding horses of 
fire. 

" The old age of my father revealed the beauty of a cheer- 
ful spirit. I never remember to have heard him utter a 
a gloomy expression. This was not because he had no per- 
ception of the pollutions of society. He abhored anything 
like impurity, or fraud, or double-dealing. He never failed 
to lift up his voice against sin, when he saw it. He was 
terrible in his indignation against wrong, and had an iron 
grip for the throat of him who trampled on the helpless. 
Better meet a lion robbed of her whelps than hirn, if you 
had been stealing the bread out of the mouth of the father- 
less. It required all the placidity of my mother's voice to 
calm him Avheh once the mountain storm of his righteous 
wrath was in full blast; while as for himself, he would 
submit to more imposition, and say nothing, than any man 
I ever knew. 

" But while sensitive to the evils of society, he felt confi- 
dent that all would be righted. When he prayed, you 
oould hear in the very tones of his voice the expectation 
that Christ Jesus would utterly destroy all iniquity and fill 
the earth with His glory. 

" My Christian father, too, was not a misanthrope, did not 



Life of rev. t. de witt talmage, d.d. 11 



think that everything was going to ruin; but considered the 
world a very good place to live in. He never sat moping or 
despondent, but took things as they were, knowing that 
God could and would make them better. When the heavi- 
est surge of calamity came upon him, he met it with as 
cheerful a countenance as ever a bather at the beach met 
the incoming Atlantic, rising up on the other side of the 
w T ave stronger than when it smote him. Without ever be- 
ing charged with frivolity, he sang, and whistled, and 
laughed. He knew about all the cheerful tunes that were 
ever printed in old ' New-Brunswick Collection,' and the 
6 Shumway,' and the sweetest melodies that Thomas Hast- 
ings ever composed. I think that every pillar in the Som- 
erville and Boundbrook churches knew his happy voice. He 
took the pitch of sacred song on Sabbath morning, and lost 
it not through all the week. I have heard him sing ploughing 
amid the aggravations of a c new ground,' even while serv- 
ing writs, examining deeds, going to arrest criminals, in the 
house and by the way, at the barn and in the street. 

" When the church choir would break down, everybody 
looked around to see if he were not ready with 6 Wood- 
stock,' ' Mount Pisgah,' or 6 Uxbridge.' And when all his 
familiar tunes failed to express the joy of his soul, he 
would take up his pen, draw five long lines across the sheet, 
put in the notes, and then, to the tune that he called 
6 Boundbrook,' begin to sing — 

As when the weary traveler gains 

The height of some o'eiiooking hill, 
His strength revives/ if 'cross the plain* 

He eyes his home, though distant still. 
Thus, when the Christian pilgrim views, 

By faith, his mansion in the skies, 
The sight his fainting strength renews, 

^Lnd, wings his speed to reach the prize. 



12 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



* 'Tis there/ he says, 1 1 am to dwell 

With Jesus in the realms of day- 
There I shall bid my cares farewell, 

And He shall wipe my tears away.' 

But few families fall heir to so large a pile of well-studied 
note-books. 

"He was ready at proper times for all kinds of innocent 
amusement. He often felt a merriment that not only 
touched the lips, but played upon every fiber of the body, 
and rolled down into the very depths of his soul with long 
reverberations. No one that ever I knew understood more 
fully the science of a good laugh. He was not only quick 
to recognize hilarity when created by others, but was al- 
ways ready to do his share towards making it. Before ex- 
treme old age, he could outrun and outleap any of his chil- 
dren. He did not hide his satisfaction at having out- 
walked some one who boasted of his pedestrianism, or at 
having been able to swing the scythe after all the rest of 
the harvesters had dropped from exhaustion; or having, in 
legislative hall, tripped up some villainous scheme for rob- 
bing the public treasury. 

"We never had our ears boxed, as some children I wot of, 
for the sin of being happy. In long winter nights it was 
hard to tell who enjoyed sportfulness the better — the chil- 
dren who romped on the floor, or the parents who, with 
lighted countenance, looked at them. Great indulgence 
and leniency characterized his family rule, but the remem- 
brance of at least one correction more emphatic than 
pleasing proves that he was not like Eli of old, who had 
wayward sons and restrained them not. In the multitude 
of his witticisms there were no flings at religion, no carica- 
tures of good men, no trifling with the things of eternity. 
His laughter was not the < crackling of thorns under a 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



13 



pot,' but the merry heart that doeth good like a medicine. 
For this all the children in the community knew him; and 
to the last day of his walking out, when they saw him 
coming down the lane, shouted: ( Here comes grandfather! 1 
No gall, no acerbity, no hypercriticism. If there was a 
bright side to anything, he always saw it; and his name, in 
all the places where he dwelt, will long be a synonym for 
exhilaration of spirit. 

" But whence this cheerfulness ? Some might ascribe it 
all to natural disposition. No doubt there is such a thing 
as sunshine of temperament. God gives more brightness 
to the almond tree than to the cypress. While the pool 
putrefies under the summer sun, God slips the rill off the 
rocks with a frolicsomeness that fills the mountain with 
echo. No doubt constitutional structure had much to do 
with this cheerfulness. He had, by a life of sobriety, pre- 
served his freshness and vigor. You know that good 
habits are better than speaking-tubes to the ear; better 
than a staff to the hand; better than lozenges to the 
throat; better than warm baths to the feet; better than 
bitters for the stomach. His lips had not been polluted 
nor his brain befogged by the fumes of the noxious weed 
that has sapped the life of whole generations, sending even 
ministers of the Gospel to untimely graves, over which the 
tombstone declared, ' Sacrificed by over- work in the Lord's 
vineyard;' when, if the marble had not lied, it would have 
said: 'Killed by villainous tobacco!' He abhored any- 
thing that could intoxicate, being among the first in this 
country to join the crusade against alcoholic beverage-. 
When urged, during a severe sickness, to take some stimu- 
lus, he said: 'No! if I am to die, let me die sober! ' The 
swill of the brewery had never been poured around the 
.roots of this thrifty almond. To the last week of his life 



14 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D 



his ear could catch a child's whisper, and at fourscore years 
his eyes refused spectacles, although he would sometimes 
have to hold the book off on the other side of the light, as 
octogenarians are wont to do. No trembling of the bands, 
no rheum in the eyes, no knocking together of the knees, 
no hobbling on crutches with what polite society terms 
rheumatism in the feet, but what everybody knows is noth- 
ing but gout. Death came, not to fell the gnarled trunk of 
a tree worm-eaten and lightning-blasted, but to hew down 
a Lebanon cedar, whose fall made the mountains tremble 
and the heavens ring. But physical health could not ac- 
count for half of this sunshine. 

" Seventy-eight years ago a coal from the heavenly altar 
had kindled a light that shone brighter and brighter to the 
perfect day. Let Almighty grace for nearly three-quarters 
of a century triumph in a man's soul, and do you wonder 
that he is happy? For twice the length of your life and 
mine he had sat in the bower of the promises, plucking the 
round,, ripe clusters of Eshcol. While others bit their 
tongue for thirst, he stood at the wells of salvation and 
put his lips to the bucket that came up dripping with the 
fresh, cool, sparkling waters of eternal life. This joy was 
hot that which breaks in the bursting bubble of the cham- 
pagne glass, or that w^hich is thrown out with the orange- 
peelings of a midnight bacchanalia, but the joy which, 
planted by a Saviour's pardoning grace, mounts up higher 
and higher, till it rolls forth in the acclaim of the hundred 
and forty and four thousand who have broken their last 
chain and wept their last sorrow. O mighty God! How 
deep, how wide, how high the joy Thou kindlest in the 
heart of the believer! 

" Let not his cheerfulness give you the idea that he never 
had trouble. But few men have so serious and overwhelm- 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 15 



ing a life struggle. He went out into the world without 
means, and with no educational opportunity save that 
which was afforded him in the winter months, in an old, 
dilapidated school-house, from instructors whose chief 
work was to collect their own salary. Instead of post- 
poning the marriage relation, as modern society compels a 
young man to postpone it, until he can earn a fortune and 
be able, at commencement of the conjugal relation, to keep 
a companion like the lilies of the field, that toil not nor 
spin, though Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 
one of these — he chose an early alliance with one who would 
not only be able to enjoy the success of life, but who would 
with her own willing hands help to achieve it. And so, 
while father ploughed the fields, and threshed the 
wheat, and broke the flax, and husked the corn, my 
mother stood for Solomon's portraiture when he said: 
i She riseth also while it is yet night and giveth 
meat to her household. She layeth her hands to the 
spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She is not afraid 
of the snow for her household, for all her household are 
clothed with scarlet. Her children arise up and call her 
blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many 
daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them 
all.' So that the limited estate of the New Jersey farmer 
never foundered on millinery establishments and confec- 
tionery shops. And though we were some years of age be- 
fore we heard the trill of a piano, we knew well all about 
the song of 6 The Spinning Wheel.' There were no lords, 
or baronets, or princes in our ancestral line. None wore 
stars, cockade, or crest. There was once a family coat-of- 
arms, but we were none of us wise enough to tell its mean- 
ing. Do our best, we cannot find anything about our fore- 

, runners, except that they behaved well, came over from 

l! • 



16 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

Wales or Holland a good while ago, and died when their 
time came. Some of them may have had fine equipage 
and caparisoned postilion, but the most of them were sure 
only of footmen! 

" My father started in life belonging to the aristocracy of 
hard knuckles, but had this high honor, that no one could 
despise: he was the son of a father who loved God and 
kept His commandments. What is the House of Hapsburg, 
or Stuart, compared with the honor of being a son of the 
Lord God Almighty ? Two eyes, two hands and two feet 
were the capital my father started with. For fifteen years 
an invalid, he had a fearful struggle to support his large 
family. Nothing but faith in God upheld him. His recital 
of help afforded and deliverances wrought was more like a 
romance than a reality. He walked through many a desert, 
but every morning had its manna, and every night its pillar 
of fire, and every hard rock a rod that could shatter it into 
crystal fountains at his feet. More than once he came to 
his last dollar; but right behind that last dollar he found 
Him who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and out of 
the palm of whose hand all the^ fowls of heaven peck their 
food, and who hath given to each one of his disciples a war- 
rant deed for the whole universe in the words, 'All are yours.' 

" The path that led him through financial straits prepared 
him also for sore bereavements. The infant of days was 
smitten, and he laid it into the river of death with as much 
confidence as infant Moses was laid into the ark of the Nile, 
knowing that soon from the royal palace a shining one 
would come to fetch it. 

" In an island of the sea, among strangers, almost unat- 
tended, death came to a beloved son; and though I remem- 
ber the darkness that dropped on the household when the 
black-sealed letter was opened, I remember also the utter- 
ances of Christian submission. 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 11 

u Another, bearing his own name, just on the threshold of 
manhood, his heart beating high with hope, falls into the 
dust; but above the cries of early widowhood and the deso- 
lation of that dark day I hear the patriarch's prayer com- 
mending children and children's children to the Divine 
sympathy. 

" But a deeper shadow fell across the old homestead. The 
' golden wedding ' had been celebrated nine years before. 
My mother looked up, pushed back her spectacles, and said: 
1 Just think of it, father? We have been together fifty- 
nine years? ' The twain stood together like two trees of 
the forest with interlocked branches. Their affections had 
taken deep rool together in many a kindred grave. Side 
by side, in life's great battle, they had fought the good 
fight and won the day. But death comes to un joint this 
alliance. God will not any longer let her suffer mortal ail- 
ments. The reward of righteousness is ready, and it must 
be paid. But what tearing apart! What rending up! 
What will the aged man do without this other to lean on? 
Who can so well understand how to sympathize and coun- 
sel? What voice so cheering as hers to conduct him down 
the steep of old age? My mother's death! 'Oh!' she 
said, in her last moments, c father, if you and I could only 
go together, how pleasant it would be! ' But the hush of 
death came down one autumnal afternoon, and for the first 
time in my life, on my arrival home, I received no maternal 
greeting, no answer of the lips, no pressure of the hand. 
God had taken her. 

"In this overwhelming shock the patriarch stood confident, 
reciting the promises and attesting the Divine goodness* 
Oh! sirs, that was Faith, Faith! ' Thanks be unto God, 
who giveth us the victory ! ' 

"He had not retired from the field. He had been busy so 



18 LIFE OF RET. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D, 



long, you could not expect him idle now. The faith I have 
described was not an idle expectation that sits with its 
hands in its pockts idly waiting, but a feeling which gath- 
ers up all the resources of the soul, and hurls them upon 
one grand design. He was among the first who toiled 
in Sabbath Schools, and never failed to speak the praise of 
these institutions. No storm or darkness ever kept him 
away from prayer-meeting. In the neighborhood where 
he lived, for years he held a devotional meeting. Often- 
times the only praying man present, before a handful of at- 
tendants, he would give out the hymn, read the lines, con- 
duct the music, and pray. Then read the Scriptures, and 
pray again. Then lead forth in the Doxology with an enthu- 
siasm as if there were a thousand people present, and all the 
church members had been doing their duty. He went forth 
visiting the sick, burying the dead, collecting alms for the 
poor, inviting the ministers of religion to his household, in 
which there was, as in the house of Shunem, a little room 
over the wall, with bed and candlestick for any passing 
Elisha. He never shuddered at the sight of a subscription 
paper, and not a single great cause of benevolence had 
arisen within the last half century which he did not bless 
with his beneficence. Oh! this was not a barren almond 
tree that blossomed. His charity was not like the 
bursting of the bud of a famous tree in the South, 
that fills the whole forest with its racket; nor was it a 
clumsy thing like the fruit, in some tropical clime, 
that crashes down, almost knocking the life out of 
those who gather it; for in his ease the right hand 
knew not what the left hand did. The churches of God, in 
whose service he toiled, have arisen as one man to declare 
his faithfulness and to mourn their loss. He stood in the 
front of the holy war, and the courage which never trem- 



LIFE OF RET, T. DE WITT TALLAGE, D.D. 19 



bled or winced in the presence of temporal danger induced 
him to dare all things for God. In church matters, he was 
not afraid to be shot at. Ordained, not by the laying on of 
human hands, but by the imposition of a Savior's love, he 
preached by his life in official position, and legislative hall, 
and commercial circles, a practical Christianity. He showed 
that there was such a thing as honesty in politics. He slan- 
dered no party, stuffed no ballot-box, forged no naturaliza- 
tion papers, intoxicated no voters, told no lies, surrendered 
no principle, countenanced no clemagogism. He called 
things by their right names; and what others styled preva- 
rication, exaggeration, misstatement, or hyperbole, he 
called a lie. Though he was far from being undecided in 
his views, and never professed neutrality, or had any con- 
sort with those miserable men who boast how well they 
can walk on both sides of a dividing line and be on neither, 
yet even in the excitements of election canvass, when his 
name was hotly discussed in public journals, I do not think 
his integrity was ever assaulted. Starting every morning 
with a chapter of the Bible, and his whole family around 
him on their knees, he forgot not, in the excitements of the 
world, that he had a God to serve and a heaven to win. The 
morning prayer came up on one side of the day, and the 
evening prayer on the other side, and joined each other in 
an arch above his head, under the shadow of which he 
walked all the day. The Sabbath worship extended into 
Monday's conversation, and Tuesday's bargain, and "Wednes- 
day's mirthfulness, and Thursday's controversy, and Fri- 
day's sociality, and Saturday's calculation. 

" Through how many thrilling scenes he had passed! He 
stood at Morristown, in the choir that chanted when George 
Washington was buried. Talked with young men whose 
grandfathers he had held on his knee. Watched the pro« 



20 LIFE OF RET. T, DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



gress of John Adam's administration, Denounced, at the 
time, Aaron Burr's infamy. Heard the guns that celebrated 
the New Orleans' victory. Voted against Jackson; but 
lived long enough to wish we had one just like him. Re- 
membered when the first steamer struck the North River 
with its wheel-buckets. Flushed with excitement in the 
time of National Banks and Sub-Treasury. Was startled 
at the birth of telegraphy. Saw the United States grow 
from a speck on the world's map till all nations dip their 
flag at our passing merchantmen, and our ' National Airs ' 
have been heard on the steeps of the Himalayas. Was 
born while the revolutionary cannon were coming home 
from Yorktown, and lived to hear the tramp of troops re- 
turning from the war of the Great Rebellion. Lived to 
speak the names of eighty children, grand-children, and 
great-grandchildren. Nearly all his contemporaries gone. 
Aged Wilberf orce said that sailors drink to ' friends astern ' 
until half way over the sea, and then drink to ' friends 
ahead.' With him it had a long time been £ friends ahead/ 
So also with my father. Long and varied pilgrimage. 
Nothing but sovereign grace could have kept him true, 
earnest, useful, and Christian through so many exciting 
scenes. 

" He worked unweariedly from the sunrise of youth to the 
sunset of old age, and then in the nightfall of death, 
lighted by the starry promises, went home, taking his 
sheaves with him. Mounting from earthly to heavenly ser- 
vice, I doubt not there was a great multitude that thronged 
heaven's gate to hail him into the skies— those whose sor- 
rows he had appeased, whose burdens he had lifted, whose 
guilty souls he had pointed to a pardoning God, whose 
dying moments he had cheered, whose ascending spirits he 
had helped up on wings of sacred music. I should like to 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 21 



have heard that long, loud, triumphant shout of heaven's 
welcome. I think that the harps throbbed with another 
thrill, and the hills quaked with a mightier hallelujah. Hail! 
ransomed soul! Thy race run — thy toil ended! Hail to 
the coronation! 

"Now, after such a life, what sort of death would you 
have expected ? Will God conduct a voyager through so 
many storms, and then let him get shipwrecked coming up 
the harbor? Not such an one is my God and Savior. The 
telegraph thrilled with tidings north, south, east, west, that 
brought, in the rushing rail-train, his kindred together. The 
hour for which this aged servant of God had waited pa- 
tiently had come, and he rejoiced with a joy at which the 
tongue faltered. There was no turning from side to side 
on the pillow, as if looking for escape from grim pursuers, 
but gazing up and around as if looking out for the chariot 
of King Jesus. The prayer which the older sons had heard 
him make fifty years ago, asking that at last he might have 
1 nothing to do but die,' was literally answered. AH hi& 
children, save that one which he sent forth with his: blessr* 
ing a few months ago, in the good ship ' Surp^ke,' to pro- 
claim the glories of the Messiah on the other- side of the 
earth, were present — some to pray; som% to hold; his har*j% 
some to bathe his brow. Ail to wptiQh* % n &i wait, and; weep, 
and rejoice. He asked about my children. Talked about 
the past. Expressed his. anticipations . of the fixture. Slept 
sweetly as a child ever, slept in the arms of its mother. 
Then broke forth with, the, utterance 4 Goodness and 
mc.ivy have followed me all the days- of my life!' The 
Bible that he had studied for sa many years, now cast its 
light far on into the valley, until the very gate of heaven 
flushed upon his. vision. Some one quoted the passage, 'This 
& a. faitkfui saying and worthy of all acceptation, that 



22 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. 5 'Of 
whom I am the chief/ responded the dying Christian. We 
said, ' To live is Christ.' He answered, 'To die is gain;' 
and, lest we did not understand him, he repeated, ' To die 
is gain! ' And, as if the vision grew more enrapturing, lie 
continued to say, 'To die is gain!' Ministers of the Gos- 
pel came in, and, after the usual greeting, he said, ' Pray, 
Pray.' 

" We sang some of his favorite hymns, such as: 

Jesus can make a dying bed 

Feel soft as downy pillows are, 
While on His breast I lean my head, 

And breathe my life out sweetly there. 

He would seem almost to stop breathing in order to listen, 
and then at the close would signify that he remembered the 
old tune right well. He said: 'I shall be gone soon, but 
not too soon.' Some one quoted: ' Though I walkthrough 
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.' And 
he replied: ' Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.' £ Can 
you testify of God's faithfulness ? ' said another. He an- 
swered; 'Yes! I have been young and now I am old, yet 
have I never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed beg- 
ging bread/ He said: 'I have it good; I could not have 
it any better; I feel well — all is well.' Again, and again, 
and again, he repeated, 'All is well!' Then, lifting his 
hand, exclaimed: 'Peace! peace!' 

" On the morning of October, 27, 1871, just three years 
from the day when the soul of his companion sped into 
the heavens, it was evident that the last moment had come. 
Softly the news came to all the sleepers in the house, and 
the quick glance of lights from room to room signaled the 
coming of the death-angel. We took out our watches and 
said, ' Four o'clock and fifteen minutes!' The pulse flut- 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 23 



tered, as a tree-branch lifts and falls at the motion of a 
bird's wing about to cleave its way into the heavens. No 
quick start of pain; no glassy stare; but eyelid lightly 
closed, and calm lip, and white blossoms of the almond tree. 
From the stand we turned over the old timepiece that he 
had carried so long, and which he thought always went 
right, and announced 6 Just four o'clock and twenty min- 
utes! ' The tides of the cold river rising. Felt the wrist, 
but no pulse; the temples, but no stir; the heart, but no 
action. We listened, but heard nothing. Still! still! The 
gates of the earthly prison-house silently open, wider and 
wider. Free! Clear the way for a conquering spirit! 
Shout upward the tidings! Four o'clock and thirty min- 
utes! Without a groan or a sigh, he had passed upward 
into light. c And when Jacob had made an end of com- 
manding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and 
yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.' 

" The day for burial came. An autumnal Sabbath w as let 
down clear from heaven. At the first gush of the dawn we 
said: 'This is just the day in which for a Christian to be 
buried! ' Fading leaf, indeed, under foot told of the de- 
caying body, but streaming sunshine spoke of resurrection 
joy. They came tottering on their staff — old comrades 
who, in 1812, had marched beside him, drilling in the field, 
ready for heroic strife. They came— the poor whose rent 
he had paid to keep their children from the blasts of win- 
ter. They came — the erring men whom he had bailed out of 
prison. They came — the children who had watched his step, 
and played with his cane, and had often wondered what 
new attraction grandfather would unfold from his deep 
pockets. They came — the ministers of religion who had 
sat with him in church courts, and planned for the advance- 
ment of religion. 



24 LIFE OF REV, T. BE WITT TALMAGE, t> D. 



" Passing along the roads Where he had often gone, and by 
the birthplace of most of his children^ we laid him down to 
rest, just as the sun was setting in the country graveyard, 
close beside her with whom for more than half a century 
he had walked, and prayed, and sung, and counselled. It 
seemed as if she must speak a greeting. But no yoice 
broke the sod, no whisper ran through the grass, no word 
of recognition was uttered. Side by side, Jacob and Rachel 
were buried. Let one willow overarch their graves. In- 
stead of two marble slabs, as though these of whom we 
speak were twain, let there be but a single shaft, for they 
were one. Monument not pretentious, but plain, for they 
were old-fashioned people. On one side the marble set the 
date of their coming and going. On this side the name of 
David— the husband and father. On that third side tbe 
name of Catherine — the wife and mother. Then there will 
be but one side unchiselled. How shall we mark it ? With 
a story of Christian zeal and self-sacrifice for God ? No! 
Father and mother would shake their heads if they were 
awake to read it. This rather let it be: 'The morning 
pometh.'— Isaiah xxi. 12. 

" Henceforth we shall be orphans, Sad thing, even at 
manhood, to become fatherless and motherless. No one 
but prod can make np for the loss of a father's counsel and 
a mother's tenderness. Hope thou in God! Weeping 
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. 
Quaint John Bunyan caught a glimpse of the glorious end- 
ing of all earthly trial when he said: 'Just as the gates 
were open to let in the men, I looked in after them, and 
behpld, the city shone like the. sun - the streets were al§ot 
paved with gold, and in them walked many men with 
crowns on their heads, and golden harps to sing praises 
withal. And after that they shut up the gates; which ; 
when I had seem I wished myself among them.' 



CHAPTER II. 



MY BOYHOOD. 

" The Old Cradle! We were all rocked in that. Foi 
about fifteen years that cradle was going much of the time. 
"When the older child was taken out, a smaller child was 
put in. The crackle of the rockers is pleasant yet in my 
ears. There I took my first lessons in music as mother 
sang to me. Have heard what you would call far better 
singing since then, but none that so thoroughly touched me. 
She never got five hundred dollars per night for singing 
three songs at the Academy, with two or three encores 
grudgef ully thrown in; but without pay she sometimes sang 
all night, and came out whenever encored, though she had 
only two little ears for an audience. It was a low, subdued 
tone, that sings to me yet across forty years. 

"You see the edge of that rocker, worn quite deep? 
That is where her foot was placed while she sat with her 
knitting or sewing, on summer afternoons, while the bees 
hummed at the door and the shout of the boy at the oxen 
was heard afield. From the way the rocker is worn, I think 
that sometimes the foot must have been very tired and the 
ankle very sore; but I do not think she stopped for that. 
When such a cradle as that got a-going it kept on for years. 

" Scarlet fever came in at the door, and we all had it ; and 
oh, how the cradle did go! We contended as to who should 
lie in it, for sickness, you know, makes babies of us all. 
But after a while we surrendered it to Charlie. He was too 
old to lie in it, but he seemed so very, very sick; and with him 



26 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



in the cradle it was 'Rock!' ' Rock!' 'Rock!' But one day, 
just as long ago as I can remember, the cradle stopped. 
When a child is asleep there is no need of rocking. Charlie 
was asleep. He w^as sound asleep. Nothing would wake 
him. He needed taking up. Mother was too weak to do 
it. The neighbors came in to do that, and put a flower, 
fresh out of the garden dew, between the two still hands. 
The fever had gone out of the cheek and left it white, very 
white — the rose exchanged for the lily. There was one 
less to contend for the cradle. It soon started again, and 
with a voice not quite so firm as before, but more tender, 
the old song came back: 'Bye! bye! bye!' which meant 
more than ' II Trovatore,' rendered by opera troupe in the 
presence of an American audience, all leaning forward and 
nodding to show how well they understood Italian. 

"There was a wooden canopy at the head of the old 
cradle that somehow got loose and was taken off. But our 
infantile mind was most impressed with the face which 
much of the time hovered over us. Other women some- 
times looked in at the child and said, ' That child's hair will 
be red!' or, 'What a peculiar chin!' or, 'Do you think that 
child will live to grow up ?' and although we w^ere not old 
enough to understand their talk, by instinct we knew it was 
something disagreeable, and began to cry till the dear, sweet, 
familiar face again hovered and the rainbow arched the sky. 
Oh, we never get away from the benediction of such % 
face! It looks at us through storm and night. It smiles 
all to pieces the world's frown. After forty-seven year/* 
of rough tumbling on the world's couch, it puts us in the crJ 
die again and hushes us as with the very lullaby of heaven. 

'Let the old cradle rest in the garret. It has earned it 
quiet. The hands that shook up its pillow have quit work. 
The foot that kept the rocker in motion is through with it 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 27 



journey. The face that hovered has been veiled from mor- 
tal sight. Cradle of blessed memories! Cradle that sooothed 
so many little griefs! Cradle that kindled so many hopes! 
Cradle that rested so many fatigues!" 

" PRAYERS IN BOYHOOD. 

" I had many sound thrashings when I was a boy (not as 
many as I ought to have had, for I was the last child, and 
my parents let me off), but the most memorable scene in 
my childhood was father and mother at morning and even- 
ing prayers. I cannot forget it, for I used often to be 
squirming around on the floor and looking at them while 
they were praying. 

" LEAP-FROG. 

" The funniest play that I ever joined in at school, and one 
that sets me a-laughing now as I think of it so that I can 
hardly write, is 6 leap-frog.' It is unartistic and homely. 
It is so humiliating to the boy who bends himself over and 
puts his hands down on his knees, and it is so perilous to 
the boy, who, placing his hands on the stooped shoulders, 
attempts to fly over. But I always preferred the risk of 
the one who attempted to leap rather than the humiliation 
of the one who consented to be vaulted over. It was often 
the case that we both failed in our part and we went down 
together. For this Jack Snyder carried a grudge against 
me and wonld not speak, because he said I pushed him 
down a-purpose! But I hope he has forgiven me by this 
time, for he has been out as a missionary. Indeed, if Jack 
will come this way, I will right the wrong of olden time by 
stooping down in my study and letting him spring over me 
as my children do. 

" Almost every autumn I see that old-time school-boy feat 
repeated. Mr. So-and-so says, 6 You make me governor and 



28 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

I will see that you get to be senator. Make me mayor and I 
will see that you become assessor. Get me the office of 
street-sweeper and you shall have one of the brooms. You 
stoop down and let me jump over you, and then I will 
stoop down and let you jump over me. Elect me deacon, 
and you shall be trustee. You write a good thing about 
me, and I will write a good thing about you.' 

" boys' troubles. 
" We feel sorry for boys, because they are not exempt 
from troubles; and one of the worst is suppressed hilarity. 
To want to laugh, and still maintain gravity; to see the 
minister's wig getting twisted, and yet look devotional; to 
discover a mouse in prayer- time, and yet not titter; to see 
the young bride and groom in church try to look like old 
married people; to have the deacon drop the contribution 
plate and spill the pennies, and yet look sorry for the mis- 
fortune; in a word, to be a boy with fun from the top hair 
on the crown of the head to the tip-end of the great toe, 
and yet make no demonstration, is a trial with which we 
are deeply sympathetic. To sit on a long bench at school 
with eight or ten other boys, all able to kee]3 quiet only by 
utmost force of resolution, and something happen that 
makes all the rest snicker, while you abstain, requires an 
amount of heroic endurance we never reached. I remem- 
ber well how a rattan feels when it arrives in the open palm 
at the rate of sixty miles an hour. In my first ten years I 
suppressed enough giggles, smiles, chuckles, and yells to 
have ruined me for all time. I so often retired from the 
sitting-room, when we had company, to the wood-shed, 
where my mirth would be no disturbance to anything but 
the ash-b&rrels, that I have all allowance to make for that 
age of life which is apt to be struck through with titter. I 
still feel the boy in my nature when ludicrous things hap- 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 29 



peri, as when a city exquisite came into fche prayer-meeting, 
whisk-cane in hand, and fanciful eye-glass on, looked sub- 
limely around on the audience as much as to say, 6 1 suppose 
you all see that I am here,' and then sat down where a chair 
had just before stood, but from which place the usher had 
inadvertently removed it. Had it not been for an extem- 
porized cough and sneeze and active use of the pocket-hand- 
kerchief on my part, I should have been hopelessly ruined. 
"my first boots. 

" I have seen many days of joy, but I remember no such 
exhiliration as that felt by me on the day when I mounted 
my first pair of boots. To appreciate such an era in life, 
we must needs have been brought up in the country. Boys 
in town come to this crisis before they can appreciate the 
height and depth of such an acquisition. The boot period 
is the dividing line between babyhood and boyhood. Be- 
fore the boots, I am trampled upon by comrades and stuck 
with pins, and I walk with an air of apology for the fact 
that I am born at all. Robust school-fellows strike me 
across the cheek, and when I turn towards them, they cry, 
6 Who are you looking at?' or what is worse than any possi- 
ble insult, is to have somebody chuck me under the chin, 
and call me 'Bub.' Before the crisis of boots, the country 
boy carries no handkerchief. This keeps him in a state of 
constant humiliation. Whatever crisis may come in the 
boy's history- — no handkerchief. 

" But at last the age of boots dawns upon a boy. Hence- 
forth, instead of always having to get out of the way, he 
will make others get out of his way. He will sometimes 
get the Scripture lesson confused, and when smitten on the 
right cheek will turn and give it to his opponent on the left 
cheek also. Indeed, I do not think that there is any regu- 
lation, human or divine, demanding that a boy submit to the 



30 LfFE OF RET. r JL. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



school-bully. I think we should teach our boy to avoid all 
quarrel and strife; but, nevertheless, to take care of him- 
self. I remember, with deep satisfaction how that, after 
Jim Johnson had knocked my hat in the mud, and spat in 
my face, and torn my new coat, I felt called upon to vindi- 
cate the majesty of my new boots. That, however, was be- 
fore I had anv idea of ever becoming a minister. But 
when the time spoken of in a boy's life comes, look out how 
you call him 'Bub.' He parts his hair on the side, has the 
end of his white handkerchief sticking out of the top of his 
side-pocket as if it were accidentally arranged so, has a dig- 
nified and manly mode of expectoration, and walks down 
the road with long strides, as much as to say, 'Clear the 
track for my boots!' 

"It was Sabbath-day when I broke them in. Oh! the 
rapture of that moment when I laid hold of the straps at 
one end, and with ray big brother pushing at the other the 
boot went on! I fear that I got but little advantage that 
day from the services. All the pulpit admonition about 
worldliness and pride struck the toes of my boots, and fell 
back. I trampled under my feet all good counsels. I had to 
repent that, while some trust in horses and some in chariots, 
I put too much stress upon leather. Though my purchase 
was so tight in the instep that, as soon as I got to the 
woods, I went limping on my way, I felt that in such a 
cause it was noble to suffer. 

"For some reason, boots are not what they used to be. 
You pay a big price, and you might walk all day without 
hearing once from them : but the original pair of which I 
tell spoke out for themselves. No one doubted whether you 
had been to church after you had once walked up the aisle 
in company with such leather. It was the pure eloquence 
of calf-skin. 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMA GE, D.D. 31 



"OUE DENTIST. 

"In boyhood, after my crying all night, laudanum and 
camphor and everything else having failed, father took me 
to the village doctor. The doctor led me to his back piazza, 
and 1 sat down on the step. Whether I was promised can- 
dy or a ride or a new pair of boots I do not remember, but 
suffice it to say the inducement did not seem adequate to 
pay for the sufferings proposed. The doctor brought out a 
long pair of forceps. There were in its very looks twists and 
grips and clutches that made the toothache instantly stop. 
Then I argued the uselessness of extraction, because it did 
not ache a bit ! They did not allow me to finish the argument. 
I was never more logical in my life. I had laid down the 
two propositions of a syllogism. First, painless teeth 
ought not to be extracted; secondly, this is a painless 
tooth; but before I could draw the conclusion the doctor 
had begun to draw the tooth. I, sitting on the step, and he 
standing back and above me, took my head between his 
knees, one knee tight against each ear. The memory of 
those knees w^ill never fade away from me. They seemed 
to me the ne plus ultra of all knees. He had hard work to 
get into my mouth, for it was so full of exclamation, or what 
boys call 6 holla,' a word so expressive that I never found 
its synonyme. But getting his hand on one side the unre- 
strained yell, and his turn-key on the other, he went in. 

" But at last the cold steel was laid aside the sore gums, 
and while I w^as clutching the doctor's arm, and biting his 
fingers as hard as I could, and kicking indiscriminately in 
all directions, and giving him a look as much as to say, 
6 Old fellow, if I live to get over this, won't I give it to 
you,' the doctor, with knees still more tightly braced, gave 
one resolute pull, and it seemed as if the roots of my neck 
had given away, and the jawbone had forsaken its socket^ 



32 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALLAGE, D.D. 



and everything, down to the last joint of the toe, had been 
dislocated, grubbed out, smashed, caved in, and annihi- 
lated with a general convulsion. The operation was success- 
ful. The dentist only did his duty, and has been for some 
years in the good place where teeth never ache and they 
never use forceps; but my memory of him is not ecstatic. 
I do not take him into my hope of future recognition. I 
can think of five hundred people whom we would rather 
meet than he, 

ct SEEING A. GHOST. 

"I never met but one ghost in all my life. It was a very 
dark night, and I was seven years of age. There was a 
German cooper, who, on the outskirts of the village, had a 
shop. It was an interesting spot, and I frequented it. 
There was a congregation of barrels, kegs, casks and firkins, 
that excited my boyish admiration. There the old man 
stood, day after day, hammering away at his trade. He 
was fond of talk, and had his head full of all that was 
weird, mysterious and tragic. During the course of his life 
he had seen almost as many ghosts as firkins; had seen 
them in Germany, on the ocean, and in America. 

" One summer afternoon, perhaps having made an un- 
usually lucrative bargain in hoop-poles, the tide of his dis- 
course bore everything before it. I hung on his lips en- 
tranced. I noticed not that the shadows of the evening 
were gathering, nor rememberd that we were a mile from 
home. He had wrought up my boyish imagination to the 
tip-top pitch. He had told me how doors opened when 
there was no hand on the latch, and the eyes of a face in a 
picture winked one windy night; and how intangible ob- 
jects in white would glide across the room, and headless 
trunks ride past on phantom horses; and how boys on the 
way home at night were met by a sheeted form, that 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 83 



picked them up and carried them off, so that they never 
were heard of, their mother going around as disconsolate as 
the woman in the c Lost Heir,' crying 6 Where's Billy ?' 

" This last story roused me to my whereabouts, and I felt 
I must go home. My hair, that usually stood on end, took 
the strictly perpendicular. My flesh crept with horror of 
the expedition homeward. My faith in everything solid 
had been shaken, I believed only in the subtile and in the 
intangible. What could a boy of seven years old depend 
upon if one of these headless horsemen might at any mo- 
ment ride him down, or one of these sheeted creatures pick 
him up ? 

" I started up the road barefooted. I was not impeded 
by any useless apparel. It took me no time to get under 
way, I felt that if I must perish, it would be well to get 
as near the doorsill of home as possible. I vowed that, if 
I was only spared this once to get home, I would never again 
allow the night to catch me at the cooper's. The ground 
flew under my feet, No headless horseman could have kept 
tip. "Not a star was out. It was the blackness of darkness. 
I had made half the distance and was in the ■ hollow '—the 
most lonely and dangerous part of the way— and felt that 
in a minute more I might abate my speed and take fuller 
breath. But, alas! no such good fortune awaited me. 
Suddenly my feet struck a monster— whether beastly, hu- 
man, infernal or supernal, witch, ghost, demon, or headless 
horseman I could not immediately tell, I fell prostrate, 
my hands passing over a hairy creature; and, as my head 
struck the ground, the monster rose up^ throwing my feet 
intq the air. Tq this day it would have been a mystery, 
had not a fearful bellow revealed it as a cow which had laid 
down to peaceful slumber in the road, not anticipating the 
terrible collision. She wasted no time, but started up the 



34 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



road. I having "by experiment discovered which end of me 
was up, joined her in the race. I knew not but that it was 
the first installment of disasters. And, therefore, away 
went, cow and boy; but the cow beat. She came into town 
a hundred yards ahead. I have not got over it yet, that I 
let that cow beat. That was the first and last ghost I ever 
met. 

"my fikst axb last cigak. 

" The time had come in our boyhood which we thought 
demanded the capacity to smoke. The old people of the 
household could abide neither the sight nor smell of the 
Virginia weed. When ministers came there, not by posi- 
tive injunction, but by a sort of instinct as to what would 
be safest, they whiffed their pipes on the back steps. If 
the house could not stand sanctified smoke, you may know 
how little chance there was for boyish cigar-puffing. 

"By some rare good fortune which put in my hands three 
cents, I found access to a tobacco store. As the lid of the 
long, narrow, fragrant box opened, and for the first time I 
owned a cigar, my feelings of elation, manliness, superiority 
and anticipation can scarcely be imagined, save by those 
who have had the same sensation. My first ride on horse- 
back, though I fell off before I got to the barn, and my 
first pair of new boots (real squeakers), I had thought 
could never be surpassed in interest ; but when I put the 
cigar to my lips and stuck the lucifer match to the end of 
the weed and commenced to pull with an energy that 
brought every facial muscle to its utmost tension, my satis- 
faction with this world was so great, my temptation was 
never to want to leave it. 

" The cigar did not burn well. It required an amount of 
suction that tasked my determination to the utmost. You 
see that my worldly means had limited me to a quality that 



LIFE OF RET. T. BE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 85 



cost oniy three cents. But I had been taught that nothing 
great was accomplished without effort, and so I puffed 
away! Indeed, I had heard my older brothers in their 
Latin lessons say, Omnia vincet labor; which translated 
means, 'If you want to make anything go, you must 
scratch for it.' 

" With these sentiments I passed down the village street 
and towards my country home. My head did not feel ex- 
actly right, and the street began to rock from side to side, so 
that it was uncertain to me which side of the street I was on. 
So I crossed, over, but found myself on the same side that I 
was on before I crossed over. Indeed, I imagined that I was 
on both sides at the same time, and several fast teams driv- 
ing between. I met another boy, who asked me why I 
looked so pale, and I told him I did not look pale, but that 
he was pale himself. 

"I sat down under the bridge, and began to reflect on the 
prospect of early decease, and on the uncertainty of all 
earthly expectations. I had determined to smoke the cigar 
all up, and thus get the worth of my money; but I was 
obliged to throw three-fourths of it away, yet knew just 
where I threw it, in case I felt better the next day. 

" Getting home, the old people were frightened, and de- 
manded that I state what kept me so late, and what was the 
matter with me. Not feeling that I was called to go into 
particulars, and not wishing to increase my parents' appre- 
> hension that I was going to turn out badly, I summed up 
the case with the statement that I felt miserable at the pit 
of the stomach. I had mustard plasters administered, anr 1 
careful watching for some hours, when I fell asleep, and 
forgot my disappointment and humiliation in being obliged 
to throw away three-fourths of my first cigar. Being nat- 
urally reticent, I have never mentioned it until this time. 



36 LIFE OF REY. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.Di 



ci But how about my last cigar ? It was three o'clock. 
Sabbath rnorningj in my Western home. I had smoked 
three or four cigars since tea. At that time I wrote my 
sermons > and took another cigar with each new head of dis- 
course. I thought I was getting the inspiration from above, 
but was getting much of it from beneath. My hand 
trembled along the line, and, strung up to the last tension 
of nerves, I finished my work and started from the room, 
A book standing on the table fell over, and although it was 
not a large book, its fall sounded to my excited system like 
the crack of a pistol. As I went down the stairs their creak- 
ing made my hair stand on end. As I flung myself on a 
sleepless pillow, I resolved, God helping, that I had 
smoked my last cigar, and committed my last sin of night- 
study. 

" I kept my promise. With the same resolution went over- 
board coffee and tea. That night I was born into a new 
physical, mental, and moral life. Perhaps it may be better 
for some to smoke, and study nights, and take exciting 
temperance beverages; but I am persuaded that if thou- 
sands of people who now go moping, and nervous, and half- 
exhausted through life, down with 'sick head-aches' and 
rasped by irritabilities, would try a good large dose of ab- 
stinence, they would thank God for this paragraph of per- 
sonal experience, and make the world the same bright place 
I find it — a place so attractive that nothing short of 
heaven would be good enough to exchange for it. 

"The first cigar made me desperately sick; the throwing 
away of my last made me gloriously well. For the croak- 
ing of the midnight owl had ceased, and the time of the 
singing of birds, had come." 



CHAPTER III. 



ENTERING THE MINISTRY, 



Dr. Talmage's parents bestowed great care upon his 
early culture, but he was nevertheless a marvel of eccen- 
tricities from his earliest childhood. He was always re- 
markable for enthusiasm in mental labor, and for his 
devotion to all those branches of intellectual attainment for 
which he felt the greatest fondness. He passed through 
the University of New .York, and graduated with distinc- 
tion, especially in belles lettres. And on graduation day, 
when he delivered an address in Niblo's Garden, he was 
received with immense applause, the majority of the au- 
dience rising to their feet. He openly professed religion at 
the age of eighteen years, but in his early manhood he 
adopted the legal profession. After a brief experience of 
the law, however, he entered the New Brunswick Theo- 
logical Seminary, and prepared for the ministry, deeply 
regretting the time which he considered as lost in pursuing 
his original choice. After his ordination, Dr. Talmage 
preached for three years at Belleville, New Jersey, three 
years at Syracuse, N. Y., and seven years at Philadelphia, 
laboring to the great profit and prosperity of the congre- 
gation of which he was pastor. In his first pastorate at Belle- 
ville he became convinced of the necessity of making Jesus 
Christ the main pivot of his sermons as essential to 
success, and he has frequently declared that his success is 
mainly due to his having constantly preached "Christ and 
Him crucified." 



38 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.J). 



BEGIXS EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING. 

"I entered the ministry with a mortal horror of extempo- 
raneous speaking. Each week I wrote two sermons and a 
lecture all out, from the text to the amen. I did not dare 
to give out the notice of a rjrayer-meeting unless it was on 
paper. I was a slave to manuscript, and the chains were 
galling ; and three months more of such work would have 
put me in the graveyard. I resolved on emancipation. The 
Sunday night was approaching when I intended to make 
violent rebellion against this bondage of pen and paper. I 
had an essay about ten minutes long on some Christian sub- 
ject, which I proposed to preach as an introduction to the 
sermon, and resolved, at the close of that brief composition, 
to launch out on the great sea of extemporaneousness. 

"It so happened that the coming Sabbath night was to be 
eventful in the village. The trustees of the church had 
been building a gasometer at the back of the church, and 
the night I speak of, the building was for the first time to be 
lighted in the modern way. The church was, of course, 
crowded — not so much to hear the preacher as to see how 
the gas would burn. Many were unbelieving, and said 
that there would be an explosion, or a big fire, or that in 
the midst of the service the lights would go out. Several 
brethren, disposed to hang on to old customs, declared that 
candles and oil were the only fit materials for lighting a 
church, and they denounced the innovation as indicative of 
vanity on the part of the new-comers. They used oil in the 
ancient Temple, and it was that which ran down on Aaron's 
beard, and anything that was good enough for the whiskers 
of an old-time priest was good enough for a country meet- 
ing-house. These sticklers for the oil were present that 
night, hoping — and I think some of them were secretly 
praying — that the gas might go out. 



JFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE. D.D. 39 



" With my ten-minute manuscript I went into the pulpit, 
all in a tremor. Although the gas did not burn as brightly 
as its friends had hoped, still it was bright enough to show 
the people the perspiration that stood in beads on my fore* 
head. I began my discourse, and every sentence gave me the 
feeling that I was one step nearer the gallows. I spoke 
very slowly, so as to make the ten-minute notes last fifteen 
minutes. During the preaching of the brief manuscript 
I concluded that I had never been called to the ministry. 
I was in a hot bath of excitement. People noticed my 
trepidation, and supposed it was because I was afraid the 
gas would go out. Alas ! My fear was that it would not 
go out. As I came towards the close of my brief I joined 
the anti-gas party, and prayed that before I came to the 
last written line something would burst, and leave me in the 
darkness. Indeed, I discovered an encouraging flicker amid 
the burners, which gave me the hope that the brief which 
lay before me would be long enough for all practical pur- 
poses, and that the hour of execution might be postponed 
to some other night. As I came to the sentence next to 
the last the lights fell down to half their size, and I could 
just manage to see the audience as they were floating away 
from my vision. I said to myself, ' Why can't these lights 
be obliging, and go out entirely V The wish was gratified. 
As I finished the last line of my brief, and stood on the 
verge of rhetorical destruction, the last glimmer of light 
was extinguished. c It is impossible to proceed,' I cried 
out ; 6 receive the benediction ! 1 

"I crawled down the pulpit in a state of exhiliration; I 
never before saw such handsome darkness. The odor of 
the escaping gas was to me like 6 gales from Araby.' Did 
a frightened young man ever have such fortunate deliver- 
ance ? The providence was probably intended to humble 
the trustees, yet the scared preacher took advantage of it. 



40 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, B.B. 



" But after I got home I saw the wickedness of being in 
such dread. As the Lord got me out of that predicament, 
I resolved never again to be cornered in one similar. Forth- 
with the thraldom was broken, I hope never again to be 
felt. How demeaning that a man with a message from the 
Lord Almighty should be dependent upon paper-mills and 
gasometers! Paper is a non-conductor of Gospel electric- 
ity. If a man has a five-thousand-dollar bill of goods to 
sell a customer, he does not go up to the purchaser and say, 
€ I have some remarks to make to, you about these goods, 
but just wait till I get out my manuscript.' Before he got 
through reading the argument the customer would be in. 
the next door, making purchases from another house. 

"What cowardice! Because a few critical hearers sit 
with lead pencils out to mark down the inaccuracies of ex- 
temporaneousness, shall the pulpit cower ? "While the great 
congregation are ready to take the bread hot out of the 
oven, shall the minister be crippled in his work because the 
village doctor or lawyer sits carping before him ? To 
please a few learned ninnies a thousand ministers sit 
writing sermons on Saturday night till near the break of 
day, their heads hot, their feet cold, and their nerves 
a-twitch. Sermons born on Saturday night are apt to have 
the rickets. Instead of cramping our chests over writing- 
desks, and being the slaves of the pen, let us attend to our 
physical health, that we may have more pulpit independ- 
ence. 

" Which thoughts came to me this week as I visited again 
the village church aforesaid, and preached out of the same 
old Bible in which, years ago, I laid the ten-minute manu- 
script, and I looked upon the same lights that once behaved 
so badly. But I found it had been snowing since the time I 
lived there, and heads that then were black are white now, 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 41 



and some of the eyes which looked up to me that memor- 
able night when the gasometer failed us, years ago, are 
closed now, and for them all earthly lights have gone out 
forever. 

" HOW I TOQK EXERCISE. 

" Soon after entering the ministry I was reading, one day, 
on the importance of physical exercise. The subject flashed 1 
upon me so overpoweringly that I resolved on a gymnasium 
in the garret of my country parsonage. I speedily extem- 
porised such an institution, and with coat off and slippers 
on began exercise. I ran and jumped and swung and lifted 
and climbed and took frightful positions. Several times 
there was a knock at the door^ and fears expressed for the 
demolition of the parsonage, But I dislike to stop after I 
have started in anything. So I kept on jerking away at the 
pulleys and walking the horizontal bars and bending over 
backward till my head touched the floor, and going through 
all varieties of tumbling. The second day my exercise was 
excruciating, because of sore ligaments and muscles. On 
the third day I resigned for ever the duties of that particu- 
lar gymnasium. I sat two days with my feet upon a pil- 
low, in a state of disgust with all those who had written on 
the subject of sanitary conditions. I doubted whether phys- 
ical exercise was of any advantage after all. It certainly 
had been a damage to me. Against all the learned advo- 
cates on the other side, I had before me two immovable 
arguments in the shape of two crippled legs. I would have 
continued that quiet position still longer, but Sunday had 
come, and I must preach. Getting to church was one of 
the most difficult enterprises I ever conducted. I went early, 
for the pulpit was to be climbed, and I did not desire to ex- 
cite the sympathy of the audience. There was no one in 
church but the sexton, and I waited till he went to ring the 



42 LIFE OF REV. T. BE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

bell before I began to climb the sacred hill. The six steps 
seemed like the sides of the Matterhorn for difficult ascent. 
The first step up I took sidewise, the second backward, the 
the third by a strong pull on the banisters. I then stopped 
to rest and wipe the perspiration from my brow, all flushed 
with the manly achievements of the last five minutes. Noth- 
ing but the fact that I was half-way up, and that it would 
hurt me as much to go down as to go up, encouraged me in 
the work of ascent. But the last two steps were stimula- 
ted by the sound of advancing feet in the vestibule, and an 
indisposition on my part to create unseemly mirth in church, 
or to tempt any one to irreverent laughter at an ambassador 
from the skies. The audience coming in were surprised to 
find their pastor so early waiting for them. If I had that 
day taken the text nearest to my heart, it would have been 
Paul's advice to a young minister by the name of Timothy, 
i Bodily exercise profiteth little.' 

" I learned by these experiences that anything overdone 
had better not be done at all. Gymnasiums are grand 
things; but let common sense dictate quantities and quali- 
ties, and do not allow the dumb-bells to drag down the 
shoulders, nor had you better hang by your feet to a ring till 
you get black in the face. Fencing is good; but do not 
be rough, nor play with loafers. Pedestrianism is health- 
ful; but do not forget that the road back is a little farther 
than the road out, though it may be the same road. Hunt- 
ing is good, if you do not shoot sparrows, nor go to sleep 
on the edge of a marsh. Rowing is good, if you do not 
take a bottle in the boat, nor pull so hard that you get 
aneurismal trouble with the heart. When I forsook the 
fitful and extravagant use of gymnastics, and came to their 
gradual and intelligent use, I found them, next to religion, 
the best panacea for all earthly ills, I have put down, all 



HlfEi OF ^EY T. DE "WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



43 



^fre luu/dens of the last twenty years at the door of the 
gymnasium, or hung them on the horizontal bars, or de- 
molished them with the butt end of dumb-bells, or fastened 
them, as so many Mazeppas, to the wooden horse bounding 
off the precipices of forgetf alness. Let not, therefore, 
the wrenched muscles and swollen feet of the Belleville 
parsonage trip up any one on his way to the gymnasium. 
Only do not take so much of anything at once that you can- 
not take any more of it again. Moderation is a big word, 
which it takes some of us a long time to learn how to spell." 

CATCHIXG THE BAY MAKE. 

"It may be a lack of education on my part, but I confess 
to a dislike for horse-races. I never attended but three; 
the first in my boyhood, the second at a country fair, where 
I was deceived as to what would transpire, the third last 
Sabbath morning. I see my friends flush with indignation 
at this last admission; but let them wait a moment before 
they launch their verdict. 

"My horse was in the pasture-field. It was almost time 
to start for church, and I needed the animal harnessed, The 
boy came in saying it was impossible to catch the bay 
mare, and calling for my assistance. I had on my best 
clothes, and did not feel like exposing myself to rough 
usage; but I vaulted the fence with pail of water in hand, 
expecting to try the effect of rewards rather than punish- 
ments. The horse came out generously to meet me. I said 
to the boy, ' She is very tame. Strange you cannot catch 
her.' She came near enough to cautiously smell the pail, 
when she suddenly changed her mind, and with one wild 
snort dashed off to the other end of the field. 

" "Whether she was not thirsty, or was critical of the man- 
ner of presentation, or had apprehensions of my motive, or 



44 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



was seized with desire for exercise in the open air, she gave 
us no chance to guess. I resolved upon more caution of 
advance and gentler voice, and so laboriously approached 
her; for though a pail of water is light for a little way, it 
gets heavy after you have gone a considerable distance, 
though its contents be half spilled. 

" This time I succeeded in getting her nose inserted into 
the bright beverage. I called her by pet names, addressing 
her as ' Poor Dolly!' not wishing to suggest any pauperism 
by that term, but only sympathy for the sorrows of the 
brute creation, and told her that she was the finest horse 
that ever was. It seemed to take well. Flattery always 
does with horses. 

"I felt that the time had come for me to produce the 
rope halter, which with my left hand I had all the while 
kept secreted behind my back. I put it over her neck, 
when the beast wheeled, and I seized her by the point 
where the copy-books say we ought to take Time, namely^ 
the forelock. But I had poor luck. I ceased all caressing 
tone, and changed the subjunctive mood for the imperative. 
There never was a greater divergence of sentiment than at 
that instant between myself and the bay mare. She pulled 
one way, I pulled the other. Turning her back upon me 
she ejaculated into the air two shining horse-shoes, both the 
shape of the letter O, the one interjection in contempt for 
the ministry and the other in contempt for the press. 

" But catch the horse I must, for I was bound to be at 
church, though just then I did not feel at all devotional. I 
resolved, therefore, with the boy, to run her down; so, by 
Way of making an animated start, I slung the pail at the 
horse's head and put out on a Sunday morning horse-race. 
Every time she stood at the other end of the field waiting 
for me to come up. She trotted, galloped and careered 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 45 



about me with an occasional neigh cheerfully given to en- 
courage me in the pursuit. I was getting more and more 
unprepared in body, mind and soul for the sanctuary. 
Meanwhile, quite a household audience lined the fence, the 
children and visitors shouted like excited Romans in an 
amphitheatre at a contest with wild beasts, and it was un- 
certain whether the audience was in sympathy with me or 
the l>ay mare. 

" At this unhappy juncture she who some years ago took 
me for c better or for worse ' came to the rescue, finding me 
in the latter condition. She advanced to the field with a 
wash-basin full of water, offering that as a sole inducement, 
and gave one call when the horse went out to meet her, and 
under a hand not half so strong as mine gripping the mane 
the refractory beast was led to the manger. 

"Standing with my feet in the damp grass and my new 
clothes wet to a sop I learned then and there how much de- 
pends on the way you do a thing. The proposition I made 
to the bay mare was far better than that offered by my 
companion, but mine failed and hers succeeded. Kot the 
first nor the last time that a wash-basin has beaten a pail. 
So some of us go all through life clumsily coaxing and 
awkwardly pursuing things which we want to halter and 
control. We strain every nerve, only to find ourselves be- 
fooled and left far behind, while some Christian man or 
woman comes into the field and by easy art captures that 
which evaded us. 

" I heard a good sermon that day, but it was not more 
impressive than the fatiguing lesson of the pasture-field, 
which taught us that not more depends upon the thing you 
do than upon the way you do it. The difference between 
the clean swath of that harvester in front of our house and 
the ragged work of his neighbor is in the way he swings 



46 LIFE OF REV. T. t>E WITT TALMAGE, D.i>. 



the scythe, and not in the scythe itself. There are ten mei 
with one talent apiece who do more good than the one man 
with ten talents. A basin properly lifted may accomplish 
more than a pail unskillfully swung. A minister for an 
hour in his sermon endeavors to chase down those brutish 
in their habits, attempting to place them under the harness 
of Christian restraint, and perhaps miserably fails, when 
some gentle hand of sisterly or motherly affection laid upon 
the wayward one brings him safely in. 

" There is a knack in doing things. If all those who 
plough in State and Church had known how to hold the 
handles, and turn a straight furrow, and stop the team 
at the end of the field, the world would long ago have been 
ploughed into an Eden. What many people want is gump- 
tion — a word as yet undefined; but if you do not know what 
it means, it is very certain you do not possess the quality it 
describes. We all need to follow Christian tact. The boys 
in the Baskinridge school-house laughed at Wm. L. Day- 
ton's impediment of spech, but that did not hinder him from 
afterwards making court-room and Senate-chamber thrill 
under the spell of his words. 

" In my early home there was a vicious cat that would 
iayade the milk-pans, and we, the boys, chased her with 
hoes and rakes, always hitting the place where she had been 
just before, till one day father came out with a plain 
stick of oven-wood, and with one little clip back of the ear, 
put an end to all of her nine lives. You see everything de- 
pends upon the style of the stroke, and not upon the elabo* 
rateness of the weapon. The most valuable things you trj 
to take will behave like the bay mare; but what you can 
not overcome by coarse persuasion, or reach at full run, 
you can catch with apostolic guile. Learn the first-rat« 
art of doing secular or Christian work, and then it matt en 
not whether your weapon be a basin or a pail" 



LIFE OF RET. R?. DE WITT TALMAGE, B D. 47 



rurs a cow. 

" I was spending my summers in the country, and must 
have a cow. There were ten or fifteen cows to be sold. 
There were reds, and piebalds, and duns, and browns, and 
brindles, short horns, long horns, crumpled horns, and no 
I horns. But I marked for our own a cow that was said to 
be full-blooded, whether Aldernev, or Durham, or Gal- 
loway, or Ayrshire, I will not tell, lest some cattle-fancier 
feel insulted by what I say; and if there is any grace that I 
pride myself on, it is prudence and a determination always 
to say smooth things. ' How much is bid for this magnifi- 
cent, full-blooded cow?' cried the auctioneer. ' Seventy- 
five dollars,' shouted some one. I made it eighty. He 
made it ninety. Somebody else quickly made it a hundred. 
After the bids had risen to one hundred and twenty-five 
dollars, I got animated, and resolved that I would have that 
cow if it took my last cent. i One hundred and forty dol- 
dollars' shouted my opponent. The auctioneer said it was 
the finest cow he had ever sold; and not knowing much 
about vendues, of course I believed him. It was a good deal 
of money for a minister to pay, but then I could get the whole 
matter off my hands by giving 6 a note.' In utter defiance 
of everything, I cried out, c One hundred and fifty dollars ! 5 
1 Going at that,' said the auctioneer. ' Going at that! once! 
twice! three times! gone! Mr. Talmage has it.' It was 
one of the proudest moments of my life. There she stood, 
tall, immense in the girth, horns branching graceful as a 
tree-branch, full-uddered, silk-coated, pensive-eyed. 

"I hired two boys to drive her home, while I rode in a 
carriage. No sooner had I started than the cow showed 
what turned out to be one of her peculiarities— great speed 
of hoof. She left the boys, outran my horse, jumped the 
fence, frightened nearly to death a group of school chit 



4:8 LIFE OF REV, T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



dren, and by the time I got home we all felt as if we had 
been out all day on a fox chase. 

"We never had any peace with that cow. She knew 
more tricks than a juggler. She could let down any bars, 
open any gate, outrun any dog, and ruin the patience of 
any minister. I had her a year, and yet she never got over 
wanting to £0 to the vendue. Once started out of the yard 
she was bound to see the sheriff. I coaxed her with car- 
rots, and apples, and cabbage, and sweetest stalks, and the 
richest beverage of slops, but without avail, 

"As a milker she was a failure. £ Mike, 5 who lived just 
back of our place, would come in at nights from his 6 Kerry 
cow,' a scraggy runt that lived on the commons, with his 
pail so full he had to carry it cautiously lest it spilt over. 
But after our full-blooded had been in clove? to her eyes all 
day Bridget would go out to the barn-yard, and tug and 
pull for a supply enough to make two or three custards. I 
said, 6 Bridget you don't know how to milk. Let me try.' I 
sat down by the cow, tried the full force of dynamics, but 
just at the moment when my success was about to be dem- 
onstrated, a sudden thought took her somewhere between 
the horns, and she started for the vendue, with one stroke 
of her back foot upsetting the small treasure I had accumu- 
lated, and leaving me a mere wreck of what I once was. 

"She had, among other bad things, a morbid appetite. 
Notwithstanding I gave her the richest herbaceous diet, she 
ate everything she could put her mouth on. She was fond 
of horse-blankets and articles of human clothing. I found 
her one day at the clothes-line nearly choked to death, for 
she had swallowed one leg of something and seemed dis- 
satisfied that she could not get down the other. The most 
perfect nuisance that I ever had about my place was that 
tull-blooded. 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.I>. 4* 



w Having read in our agricultural journal of cows that 
were slaughtered yielding fourteen hundred pounds, meat 
weight, we concluded to sell her to the butcher. I set a 
high price upon her and got it; that is, I took a note for it, 
which is the same thing. My bargain with the butcher was 
the only successful chapter in my bovine experiences. The 
only taking off in the whole transaction was that the butcher 
ran away, leaving me nothing but a specimen of poor chi- 
rography, and I already had enough of that among my 
manuscripts. 

" My friend, never depend on high-breeds. Some of the 
most useless of cattle had ancestors spoken of in the 'Com- 
mentaries of Caesar. 5 That Alderney whose grandfather 
used to gaze on a lord's park in England may not be worth 
the grass she eats. 

" Do not depend too much on the high-sounding name of 
Durham or Devon. As with animals, so with men. Only 
one President ever had a President for a son. Let every 
cow make her own name, and every man achieve his own 
position. It is no great credit to a fool that he had a wise 
grandfather. Many an Ayrshire and Hereford has had the 
hollow-horn and the foot-rot. Both man and animal are 
valuable in proportion as they are useful. ' Mike's ' cow 
beat my full-blooded. 

"MY DOG IN TROUBLE. 

" I sat in the country parsonage, on a cold winter day, 
looking out of the back window towards the house of a 
neighbor. She was a model of kindness, and a most con- 
venient neighbor to have. It was a rule between us that 
when either house was in want of anything it should bor- 
row of the other. The rule worked well for the parsonage, 
but rather badly for the neighbor, because on my side of 



50 LIFE OF RET. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

the fence I had just begun to keep house, and needed to 
borrow everything, while I had nothing to lend, except a 
few sermons, which the neighbor never tried to borrow, 
from the fact that she had enough of them on Sundays. 
There is no danger that your neighbor will burn a hole in your 
new brass kettle if you have none to lend. It will excite 
no surprise to say, that I had an interest in all that hap- 
pened on the other side of the parsonage fence, and that 
any injury inflicted on so kind a woman would rouse my 
sympathy. 

" On the wintry morning of which I speak my neighbor 
had been making ice-cream; but there being some defect 
in the machinery, the cream had not sufficiently congealed, 
and so she set the can of the freezer containing the luxury 
on her back steps, expecting the cold air would completely 
harden it. "What was my dismay to see that my dog Carlo, 
on whose early education I was expending great care, had 
taken upon himself the office of ice-cream inspector, and 
was actually busy with the freezer! I hoisted the window 
and shouted at him, but his mind was so absorbed in his 
undertaking he did not stop to listen. Carlo was a grey- 
hound, thin, gaunt, and long-nosed, and he was already 
making his way on down towards the bottom of the can. 
His eyes and all his head had disappeared in the depths of 
the freezer. Indeed, he was so far submerged that when 
he heard me, with quick and infuriate pace, coming up close 
behind him, he could not get his head out, and so started 
with the incumbrance on his head, in what direction he 
knew not. No dog was ever in a more embarrassing posi- 
tion — freezer to the right of him, freezer to the left of him, 
freezer on the top of him, freezer under him. 

" So, thoroughly blinded, he rushed against the fence, 
then against the side of the house, then against a tree. Hs 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE ^YITT TALMAGE, D.D. 51 



barked as though he thought he might explode the nuisance 
with loud sound, but the sound was confined in so strange 
a speaking-trumpet that he could not have known his own 
voice. His way seemed hedged up. Fright and anger and 
remorse and shame whirled him about without mercy. 

"A feeling of mirthfumess, which sometimes takes me 
on most inappropriate occasions, seized me, and I sat down 
on the ground powerless at the moment when Carlo most 
needed help. If I only could have got near enough I would 
have put my foot on the freezer, and, taking hold of the 
dog's tail, dislodged him instantly; but this I was not per- 
mitted to do. At this stage of the disaster my neighbor 
appeared with a look of consternation, her cap strings riv- 
ing in the cold wind. I tried to explain, but the aforesaid 
untimely hilarity hindered me. All I could do was to 
point to the flying freezer and the adjoining dog, and ask 
her to call off her freezer, and, with assumed indignation, 
demand what she meant by trying to kill my greyhound. 

" The poor dog's every attempt at escape only wedged 
himself more thoroughly fast. But after a while, in time 
to save the dog, though not to save the ice-cream, my 
neighbor and myself effected a rescue. Edwin Landseer, 
the great painter of dogs and their friends, missed his best 
chance by not being there when the parishioner took hold 
of the freezer and the pastor seized the dog's tail, and, pull- 
ing mightily in opposite directions, they each got possession 
of their own property. 

u Carlo was cured of his love for luxuries, and the sight 
of a freezer on the back steps till the day of his death 
would send him howling away. 

"Carlo found, as many people have found, that it is 
easier to get into trouble than to get out. Xothing could 
be more delicious than while he was eating his way in, but 



52 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



what must have been his feelings when he found it impose 
sible to o-et out! "While he was stealing the freezer the 
freezer stole him. 

" Better moderate our desires. Carlo had that morning 
as good a breakfast as any dog need to have. It was a law 
of the household that he should be well fed. Had he been 
satisfied with bread and meat all would have been well. 
But he sauntered out for luxuries. He wanted ice-cream. 
He got it, but brought upon his head the perils and dam- 
ages of which I have written. As long as we have reason- 
able wants we get on comfortably, but it is the struggle 
after luxuries that fills society with distress and populates 
prisons and sends hundreds of people stark mad. Dissatis- 
fied with a plain house and ordinary apparel and respectable 
surroundings, they plunge their head into enterprises and 
speculations from which they have to sneak out in disgrace. 
Thousands of men have sacrificed honor and religion for 
luxuries, and died with the freezer about their ears. 

" Our poor old Carlo is dead now. We all cried when we 
found that he would never frisk again at our coming nor 
put up his paw against us. But he lived long enough to 
preach the sermon about caution ami contentment of which 
I have been the stenographer. 

"lessoxs feom my dogs. 

" I said when I lost Carlo, that I would never own another 
dog. TTe all sat around/like big children, crying about it : 
and what made the grief w orse, we had no sympathizers. 
Our neighbors were glad of it, for he had not always done 
the fair thing with them. One of them had lost a chicken 
when it was stuffed and all ready for the pan, and suspi- 
cions were upon Carlo. I was the only counsel for the 
defendant; and while I had to acknowledge that the cir- 



LIFE OF REV. T. £>E WITT TALLAGE, D.D. 63 



cumstantial evidence was against him, I proved his general 
character for integrity* and showed that the common and 
criminal law were on our side, Coke and Blackstone in our 
favor, and a long list of authorities and decisions: II. 
Revised Statutes, New York, 132, § 27; also, Watch v. 
Towser, Crompton and Meeson, p. 3 75; also, State of Xew 
Jersey v. Sicem Blanchard. "When I made these citations, 
my neighbor and his wife, who were judges and jurors in 
the case, looked confounded; and so I followed up the ad- 
vantage I had gained with the law maxim, JVbn minus ex 
dolo quctm ex culpa quisque heic lege tenetur, which I found 
afterwards was the wrong Latin, but it had its desired 
effect, so that the jury did not agree, and Carlo escaped 
with his life; and on the way home, he went spinning round 
like a top, and punctuating his glee with a semicolon made 
by both paws on my new clothes. Yet, notwithstanding 
all his predicaments and frailties, at his decease we resolved 
in our trouble that we would never own another dog. Bu^ 
this, like many other resolutions of our life, has beep 
broken; and here is Nick, the Newfoundland, lying sprawl- 
ing on the mat. He has a jaw set with strength, an eye 
mild, but indicative of the fact that he does not want too 
many familiarities from strangers; a nostril large enough 
to snuff a wild duck across the meadows, knows how to 
shake hands, and can talk with head, and ear, and tail, and 
■ — save an unreasonable antipathy to cats — is perfect, and 
always goes with me in my walk out of town. 

" He knows more than a great many people. Never do 
we take a walk, but the poodles, and rat -terriers, and the 
grizzly curs with stringy hair and damp nose, get after 
him. They tumble off the front door-step, and out of 
kennels, and assault him front and rear. I have several 
times said to him (not loud enough for Presbytery to hear), 



54 LIFE OF REV. T, DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



'Nick! why do you stand all this? Go at them!' He 
never takes my advice. He lets them bark and snap, and 
passes on unprovokedly without a sniff or growl. He seems 
to say: 6 They are hot worth minding. Let them bark. It 
pleases them and don't hurt me. I started out for a six 
mile tramp, and I cannot be diverted. Newfoundlands 
like me have a mission. My father pulled three drowning 
men to the beach, and my uncle on my mother's side saved 
a child from the snow. If you have anything brave, or 
good, or great for me to do, just clap your hands and point 
out the work, and I will do it, but I cannot waste my time 
on rat- terriers.' If Kick had put that in doggrel, I think it 
would have read well. It was wise enough to become the 
dogma of a school. Men and women are more easily 
diverted from the straight course than is Nick. No useful 
people escape being barked at. 

*'If these men go right on their way, they perform their 
mission and get their reward, but one-half of them stop 
and make attempt to silence the literary, political, and eccle- 
siastical curs that snap at them. Many an author has got 
a drop of printer's ink spattered in his eye, and collapsed. 
If a fool, no amount of newspaper or magazine puffery can 
set you up; and if you are useful, no amount of newspaper 
or magazine detraction can keep you down. For every po- 
sition there are twenty aspirants; only one man can get it; 
forthwith the other nineteen are on the offensive. People 
are silly enough to think that they can build themselves 
up with the bricks they pull out of your wall. Pass on 
and leave them. What a waste of powder for a hunter to 
go into the wood to shoot black flies, or for a man of great 
work to notice infinitesimal assault. My Newfoundland 
would scorn to be seen making a drive at a black-and-tan 
terrier. 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 55 



" Lesson for dogs and men: Keep out of fights. If you 
see a church contest, or a company of unsanctified females 
overhauling each other's good name, until there is nothing 
left of them but a broken hoop-skirt and one curl of back 
hair, you had better stand clear. Once go in, and your own 
character will be an invitation to their muzzles. Nick's 
long, clean ear was a temptation to all the dogs. You will 
have enough battles of your own, without getting a loan of 
conflicts at twenty per cent, a month. When Nick and I 
take a country walk, and pass a dog-fight, he comes close 
up by my side, and looks me in the eye with one long wipe 
of the tongue over his chops, as much as to say, e Easier to 
get into a fight than to get out of it. Better jog along our 
own way;' and then I preach him a short sermon from 
Proverbs xxvi. 17, 6 He that passeth by, and meddleth with 
strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog 
by the ears.' " 



CHAPTER IV. 



I VISIT ENGLAND. 

" My friend looked white as the wall, flung the £ London 
Times ' half across the room, kicked one slipper into the 
air, and shouted, 6 Talmage, where on earth did you come 
from?' as this summer I stepped into his. English home. 
' Just come over the ferry to dine with you,' I responded. 
After some explanation about the health of my family, 
which demanded a sea voyage, and this necessitated my 
coming, we planned two or three excursions. 

" At eight o'clock in the morning we gathered in the par- 
lor in the ' Red Horse Hotel ' at Stratf ord-on-Avon. Two 
pictures of Washington Irving, the chair in which the 
father of American literature sat, and the table on which 
he wrote, immortalizing his visit to that hotel, adorn the 
room. From thence we sailed forth to see the clean, quaint 
village of Stratford. It was built just to have Shakespeare 
born in. We have not heard that there was any one else 
ever born there, before or since. If, by any strange possi- 
bility, it could be proved that the great dramatist was born 
anywhere else, it would ruin all the cab-drivers, guides, 
and hostelries of the place. 

" We went of course to the house where Shakespeare first 
appeared on the stage of life, and enacted the first act of 
his first play. Scene the first: Enter John Shakespeare, 
the father; Mrs. Shakespeare, the mother; and the old 
nurse, with young William. 

" A very plain house it is. Like the lark, which soars 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 57 



highest but builds its nest lowest, so with genius; it has hum- 
ble beginnings. I think ten thousand dollars would be a 
large appraisement for all the houses where the great poets 
were born. But all the world comes to this lowly dwelling. 
Walter Scott was glad to scratch his name on the window, r 
and you may see it now. Charles Dickens, Edmund Kean, • 
Albert Smith, Mark Lemon and Tennyson, so very sparing 
of their autographs, have left their signatures on the wall. 
There are the jambs of the old fire-place where the poet 
warmed himself and combed wool, and began to think 
for all time. Here is the chair in which he sat while pre- 
siding at the club, forming habits of drink w T hich killed 
him at the last, his own life ending in a tragedy as terrible 
as any he ever wrote. Exeunt wine-bibbers, topers, grog- 
shop keepers, Drayton, Ben Jonson, and William Shake- 
speare. Here also is the letter which Richard Quyney sent 
to Shakespeare, asking to borrow thirty pounds. I hope he 
did not lend it; for if he did, it was a dead loss. 

" We went to the church where the poet is buried. It 
dates back seven hundred years, but has been often re- 
stored. It has many pictures, and is the sleeping place of 
many distinguished dead; but one tomb within the chan- > 
eel absorbs all the attention of the stranger. For hundreds 
of years the world has looked upon the unadorned stone 
lying flat over the dust of William Shakespeare, and read 
the epitaph written by himself: 

" ' Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare 
To dig the dust enclosed here; 
Bleste be ye man yfc spares these stones, 
And curst be he that moves my bones.* 

" Under such anathema the body has slept securely. A 
sexton once looked in at the bones, but did not dare touch 
thexn 3 lest his ' quietus should be made with a bare bodkin. 5 



58 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, T> D. 



" From the church door we mounted our carriage; and 
crossing the Avon on a bridge which the Lord Mayor of 
London built four hundred years ago, we started on one of 
the most memorable rides of my life. The country looked 
fresh and luxuriant from recent rains. The close-trimmed 
hedges, the sleek cattle, the snug cottages, the straggling 
villages with their historic inns, the castle from whose park 
Shakespeare stole the deer, the gate called i Shakespeare's 
stile,' curious in the fact that it looks like ordinary bars of 
fence, but as you attempt to climb over, the whole thing 
gives way, and lets you fall flat, righting itself as soon as 
it is unburdened of you; the rabbits darting along the 
hedges, undisturbed, because it is unlawful, save for 
licensed hunters, to shoot, and then not on private proper- 
ty; the perfect weather, the blue sky, the exhilirating breeze, 
the glorious elms and oaks by the way — make it a day 
that will live when most other days are dead. 

"At two o'clock we came in sight of KenilwortirCastle. 
Oh, this is the place to stir the blood. It is the king of 
ruins. Warwick is nothing, Melrose is nothing, compared 
with it. A thousand great facts look out through the 
broken windows. Earls and kings and queens sit along the 
shattered sides of the banqueting-halls. The stairs are 
worn deep with the feet that have clambered them for eight 
hundred years. As a loving daughter arranges the dress of 
an old man, so every season throws a thick mantle of ivy 
over the mouldering wall. The roof that caught an<* 
echoed back the merriment of dead ages has perished 
Time hasstruck his chisel into every inch of the structure. 

" By the payment of only threepence you find access t? 
places where only the titled were once permitted to walk 
You go in, and are overwhelmed with the thoughts of pas' 
glory and present decay. These halls were promenaded by 
Richard Coeur de Lion; in this chapel burned the tomV 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 59 



lights over the grave of Geoffrey de Clinton; in these dun- 
geons kings groaned; in these doorways duchesses fainted. 
Scene of gold, and silver, and scroll-work, and chiselled 
arch, and mosaic. Here were heard the carousals of the 
Round Table; from those very stables the caparisoned 
horses came prancing out for the tournament; through that 
gateway, strong, weak, heroic, mean, splendid Queen Eliz- 
abeth advanced to the castle, while the waters of the lake 
gleamed under torch-lights, and the battlements were 
aflame with rockets; and cornet, and hautboy and trumpet, 
poured out their music on the air; and goddesses glided out 
from the groves to meet her; and from turret to foundation 
Kenil worth trembled under a cannonade, and for seventeen 
days, at a cost of of five thousand dollars a day, the festi- 
val was kept. Four hundred servants standing in costly 
livery; sham battles between knights on horseback; jugglers 
tumbling on the grass; thirteen bears baited for the amuse- 
ment of the guests; three hundred and twenty hogsheads 
of beer consumed; till all Europe applauded, denounced, and 
stood amazed. 

" Where is the glory now ? What has become of the 
velvet ? Who wears the jewels ? Would Amy Robsart 
have longed to get into the castle had she known its coming 
ruin? Where are those who were waited on, and those 
who waited ? What has become of Elizabeth the visitor, 
and Robert Dudley the visited ? Cromwell's men dashed 
upon the scene ; they drained the lakes ; they befouled the 
banquet-hall; they turned the castle into a tomb, on whose 
scarred and riven sides ambition and cruelty and lust may 
well read their doom. 6 So let all thine enemies perish, O 
Lord ; but let them that love Thee be as the sun when he 
goeth forth in his might.' " 

THOMAS CARLYLE. 

" In Chelsea, a suburb of London, and on a narrow street, 



60 LIFE OF mr a T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



with not even a house in front, but, instead thereof, a long 
range of brick wall, is the house of Thomas Carlyle. You 
go through a narrow hall and turn to the left, and are in 
the literary workshop where some of the strongest thunder- 
bolts of the world have been forged. The two front win- 
dows have on them scant curtains of reddish calico, hung 
at the top of the lower sash, so as not to keep the sun from 
looking down, but to hinder the street from looking in. 

" The room has a lounge covered with the same material, 
and of construction such as you would find in the plainest 
house among the mountains. It looks as if it had been 
made by an author not accustomed to saw or hammer, 
and in the interstices of mental work. On the wall are a 
few woodcuts in plain frames or pinned against the wall; 
also a photograph of Mr. Carlyle taken one day, as his 
family told me, when he had a violent toothache and could 
attend to nothing else. It is his favorite picture, though it 
gives him a face more than ordinarily severe and troubled. 

" In long shelves, unpainted and unsheltered by glass or 
door, is the library of the world-renowned thinker. The 
books are worn, as though he had bought them to read. 
Many of them are uncommon books, the titles of which I 
never saw before. American literature is almost ignored, 
while Germany monopolizes many of the spaces. I noticed 
the absence of theological works, save those of Thomas 
Chalmers, whose name and genius he well-nigh worships. 
The carpets are old and worn and faded — not because he 
cannot afford better, but because he would have his home a 
perpetual protest against the world's sham. It is a place 
not calculated to give inspiration to a writer. "No easy- 
chairs, no soft divans, no wealth of upholstery, but simply 
a place to work and stay. Kever having heard a word 
about it, it was nevertheless just such a place as I ex- 
pected." 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 61 



WORKS OF ART. 

"None can forget the place, or the day, or the hour, when 
he first gazed on a genuine work of one of the old masters^ 
We had seen for years pieces of canvas which pretended to 
have come from Italy or Germany, and to be three or four 
hundred years old. The chief glory of them was that they 
were cracked, and wrinkled, and dull, and inexplicable, and 
had great antiquity "of varnish, immensity of daub, and in- 
finity of botch. The great grandfather of the exhibition 
got the heirloom from a Portuguese pedlar, who was 
wrecked at Venice in the middle of the last century, and 
went ashore just as one of the descendants of the celebrated 
Braggadocio Thundergusto, of the fourteenth century, was 
hard up for money, and must have a drink or die. 

"But I find in my diary this record: 

"< June 30, 1870, at two o'clock, P. M., in the National 
Gallery of Scotland, I first saw a Titian. 

"'July 9, 1870, at ten minutes to three o'clock, in the 
National Gallery of England, first saw a Murillo.' 

"It seemed to require gt sacred subject to call out the 
genius of the old masters. On secular themes they often 
failed. They knew not, as do the moderns, how to pluck 
up a plant from the earth and make it live on canvas. Del- 
monico, for the adornment of a shoulder of bacon, with his 
knife cuts out of a red beet a rose more natural than the 
forget-me-not of old Sigismond Holbein, or the lily by Lo 
Spagna. Their battle-pieces are a Cincinnati slaughter- 
house. Their Cupid scenes are merely a nursery of babies 
that rush out from the bath-tub into the hall before their 
mother has time to dress them. The masters failed with a 
fiddle, but shook the earth with a diapason. Give them a 
i Crucifixion ' or a ' Judgment,' and they triumph." 



CHAPTER V. 



MY RETURN TO AMERICA. 

[Ik company with Dr. Talmage, on board the ''Gallia," 
up the Channel, he remarked to us that he had recently 
passed the steamship "Greece," in which vessel he once 
encountered, with seven hundred other souls on board, a 
terrific cyclone when returning home from England. His 
powerful description of that event, written at the time, 
we now present to our readers. — Ed.] 

" The steamer £ Greece' of the National Line swung out 
into the river Mersey at Liverpool, bound for New York. 
We had on board seven hundred, crew and passengers. We 
came together strangers — Englishmen, Irishmen, Italians, 
Swedes, Norwegians, Americans. Two flags floated from 
the masts : British and American ensigns. So may they 
ever float, and no red hand of war ever snatch either of 
them down ! In the same prayer that we put up for our 
own national prosperity, we will send up the petition, 'God 
save the Queen V We had a new vessel, or one so thoroughly 
remodeled that the voyage had around it all the uncertain- 
ties of a trial trip. The great steamer felt its way cau- 
tiously out into the sea. The pilot was discharged; and 
committing ourselves to the care of Him who holdeth the 
winds in His fist, we were fairly started on our voyage of 
three thousand miles. It was rough nearly all the way— 
the sea with strong buffeting disputing our path. But one 
week ago last night, at eleven o'clock, after the lights had 
been put out, a cyclone — a wind just made to tear ships to 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 63 



pieces — caught us in its clutches. It came down so sud- 
denly that we had not time to take in the sails, or to fasten 
the hatches. You must know that the bottom of the 
Atlantic is strewn with the ghastly work of cyclones. Oh! 
they are cruel winds. They have hot breath, as though 
they came up from infernal furnaces. Their merriment is 
the cry of affrighted passengers. Their play is the founder- 
ing of steamers. And when a ship goes down they laugh 
until both continents hear them. They go in circles, or, as 
I describe them with my hand — rolling on! rolling on! 
With finger of terror writing on the white sheet of the 
wave this sentence of doom: £ Let all that come within this 
circle perish! Brigantines, go down! Clippers, go down! 
Steamships, go down!' And the vessel, hearing the terrible 
voice, crouches in the surf, and as the waters gurgle through 
the hatches and portholes, it lowers away, thousands of feet 
down, further and further, until at last it strikes the bot- 
tom; and all is peace, for they have landed. Helmsman, 
dead at the wheel! Engineer, dead amid the extinguished 
furnaces! Captain, dead in the gangway! Passengers, 
dead in the cabin! Buried in the great cemetery of dead 
steamers, beside the 6 City of Boston,' the ' Lexington,' the 
6 President,' the e Cambria' — waiting for the archangel's 
trumpet to split up the decks, and wrench open the cabin- 
doors, and unfasten the hatches. 

"I thought 4;hat I had seen storms on the sea before; 
but all of them together might have come under one wing 
of that cyclone. We were only eight or nine hundred miles 
from home, and in high expectation of soon seeing our 
friends, for there was no one on board so poor as net to 
have a friend. But it seemed as if we were to be disap- 
pointed. The most of us expected then and there to die. 
There were none who made light of the peril, save two: one 



64 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



was an Englishman, and he was drunk, and the other was 
an American, and he was a fool! Oh! what a time it was! 
A night to make one's hair turn white. We came out of 
the berths, and stood in the gangway, and looked into the 
steerage, and sat in the cabin. While seated there, we 
, heard overhead something like minute-guns. It was the 
bursting of the sails. We held on with both hands to keep i 
our places, Those who attempted to cross the floor came 
back bruised and gashed. Cups and glasses were dashed 
to fragments; pieces of the table, getting loose, swung 
across the saloon. It seemed as if the hurricane took that 
great ship of thousands of tons and stood it on end, and 
said: ' Shall I sink it, or let it go this once? 5 And then it 
came down with such force that the billows trampled over 
it, each mounted on a fury. We felt that everything de- 
pended on the propelling screw. If that stopped for an 
instant, we knew the vessel would fall off into the trough 
of the sea and sink; and so we prayed that the screw, which 
three times since leaving Liverpool had already stopped, 
might not stop now. Oh! how anxiously we listened for 
the regular thump, thump, thump of the machinery, upon 
which our lives seemed to depend. After a while some one 
said: ' The screw is stopped! ' No; its sound had only been 
overpowered by the uproar of the tempest, and we breathed 
easier again when we heard the regular pulsations of the 
overtasked machinery going thump, thump, thump. At 
three o'clock in the morning the water covered the ship 
from prow to stern, and the skylights gave way! The 
deluge rushed in, and we felt that one or two more waves 
like that must swamp us forever. As the water rolled 
backward and forward in the cabins, and dashed against 
the wall, it sprang half-way up to the ceiling. Rush, 
ing through the skylights as it came in with such ter- 



UFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 65 



rific roar, there went up from the cabin a shriek of horror 
which I pray God I may never hear again. I have dreamed 
the whole scene over again, but God has mercifully kept 
me from hearing that one cry. Into it seemed to be com- 
pressed the agony of expected shipwreck. It seemed to 
say: 'I shall never get home again! My children shall be 
orphaned, and my wife shall be widowed! I am launch- 
ing now into eternity! In two minutes I shall meet my 
God! ' 

" There were about five hundred and fifty passengers in 
the steerage; and as the waters rushed in and touched the 
furnaces, and began violently to hiss, the poor creatures in 
the steerage imagined that the boilers were giving way. 
Those passengers writhed in the water and in the mud, 
some praying, some crying, all terrified. They made a rush 
for the deck. An officer stood on deck, and beat them back 
with blow after blow. It was necessary. They could not 
have stood an instant on the deck. Oh! how they begged 
to get out of the hold of the ship! One woman with a child 
in her arms rushed up and caught hold of one of the officers 
and cried: 'Do let me out! I will help you! Do let me out! 
I cannot die here.' Some got down and prayed to the Vir- 
gin Mary, saying: k O blessed Mother! keep us! Have 
mercy on us!' Some stood with white lips and fixed gaze, 
silent in their terror. Some wrung their hands, and cried 
out; " O God! what shall I do? what shall I do?' The time 
came when the crew could no longer stay on the deck, and 
the cry of the officers was: ' Below! all hands below i' Our 
brave and sympathetic Captain Andrews— whose praise I 
shall not cease to speak while I live — had been swept by the 
hurricane from his bridge, and had escaped very narrowly 
with his life. The cyclone seemed to stand on the deck, 
waving its wing, crying: 6 This ship is mine! I have cap- 



66 LIFE OF REV. f. BE WITT TALMAGE, D.B. 

turedit! Ha! ha! I will command it. If God will per- 
mit, I will sink it here and now! By a thousand shipwrecks, 
I swear the doom of this vessel! 5 There was a lull in the 
storm; but only that it might gain additional fury. Crash! 
went the life-boat on one side. Crash! went the life-boat 
on the other side. The great booms got loose, and as with 
the heft of a thunder-bolt, pounded the deck and beat the 
mast — the jib-boom, studding-sail boom, and square-sail 
boom, with their strong arms, beating time to the awful 
march and music of the hurricane! 

" Meanwhile the ocean became phosphorescent, The 
whole scene looked like fire. The water dripping from the 
rigging; there were ropes of fire; and there were masts of 
fire; and there was a deck of fire. A ship of fire, sailing on 
a sea of fire, through a night of fire. O, my God! let me 
never see anything like it again ! 

" Everybody prayed. A lad of twelve years of age got 
down and prayed for his mother. ' If I should give up,' 
he said, 'I do not know what would become of mother.' 
There w^ere men who, I think, had not prayed for thirty 
years, who then got down on their knees. When a man 
who has neglected God all his life feels that he has come to 
his last time, it makes a very busy night. All our sins and 
shortcomings passed through our minds. My own life 
seemed unsatisfactory. I could only say: 'Here Lord, take 
me as I am. I cannot mend matters now. Lord Jesus, 
thou didst die for the chief of sinners. That's me! Into 
Thy hands I commit myself, my wife, and children at 
home, the Tabernacle, the College— all the interests of Thy 
kingdom. It seems, Lord, as if my work is done, and poorly 
done, and upon Thy infinite mercy I cast myself, and in 
this hour of shipwreck and darkness commit myself and her 
whom I hold by the hand to Thee, O Lord Jesus! praying 



LIFE OF REV. T, DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 67 



that it may be a short struggle in the water, and that at the 
same instant we may both arrive in glory!' Oh! I tell you, 
a man prays straight - to the mark when he has a cyclone 
above him, an ocean beneath him, and eternity so close to 
him that he can feel its breath on his cheek. 

" The night was long. At last we saw the dawn looking 
through the port-holes. As in the olden time, in the fourth 
watch of the night, Jesus came walking on the sea, from 
wave-cliff to wave-cliff; and when He puts His foot upon a 
billow, though it may be tossed up with might, it goes 
down, lie cried to the winds, Hush! They knew His 
voice. The waves knew his foot. They died away. And 
in the shining track of his feet I read these letters on scrolls 
of foam and fire — 'The earth shall be filled with the knowl- 
edge of God as the waters fill the sea. 5 The ocean calmed. 
The path of the steamer became more and more mild; until, 
on the last morning out, the sun threw around about us a 
glory such as I never witnessed before. God made a pave- 
ment of mosaic, reaching from horizon to horizon, for all 
the splendors of earth and heaven to walk upon — a pave- 
ment bright enough for the foot of a seraph — bright 
enough for the wheels* of the archangel's chariot. As a 
parent embraces a child, and kisses away its grief, so, over 
that sea, that had been writhing in agony in the tempest, 
the morning threw its arms of beauty and of benediction: 
and the lips of earth and heaven met. As I came on deck — 
it was very early, and we were nearing the shore— I saw a 
few sails against the sky. They seemed like the spirits of 
the night walking the billows. I leaned over the taffrail of 
the vessel, and said : 'Thy way, O God, is in the sea, and 
Thy path in the great waters.' 

<( It grew lighter. The clouds were hung in purple clus- 
ters along the sky; and, as if those purple clusters were 



68 LIFE OF REV. T, DE WITT TALMAGE, 



pressed into red wine and poured out upon the sea, everj 
wave turned into crimson. Yonder, fire-cleft stood opposite 
to tire-cleft; and here, a cloud rent and tinged with light, 
saemed like a palace, with flames bursting from the win- 
dows. The whole scene lighted up, until it seemed as if 
the angels of God were ascending and descending upon 
stairs of fire, and the wave-crests, changed into jasper, and 
crystal, and amethyst, as they were flung towards the 
beach, made me think of the crowns of heaven cast before 
the»,throne of the great Jehovah. I leaned over the taffrail 
again, and said, with more emotion than before: ^Thy way, 
O God, is in the sea, and Thy path in the great 
waters! ' 

"So, I thought, will be the going off of the storm and 
night of the Christian's life. The darkness will fold its 
tents and away! The golden feet of the rising morn will 
come skipping upon the mountians, and all the wrathful 
billows of the world's woe break into the splendors of 
eternal joy. 

"And so we came into the harbor, The cyclone behind 
us. Our friends before us. God, who is always good, all 
around us! And if the roll of the crew and the passengers 
had been called, seven hundred souls would have answered 
to their names. 'And so it came to pass, that we all es- 
caped safe to land.' 

" To that God, who delivered me and mv comrades, to 
that God, I commend you. Wait not for the storm and 
darkness, before you fly to Him. Go to Him now, and seek 
his pardon. Find refuge in his mercy. 

" And may God grant that when all our Sabbaths on 
earth are ended, we may find that, through the rich mercy 
of cur Lord Jesus Christ, we all have weathered the 
gale. 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



69 



" 'Into the harbor of heaven now we glide, 

Home at last ! 
Softly we drift on the bright silver tide. 

Home at last ! 
Glory to God ! All our dangers are o'er ; 
We stand secure on the glorified shore. 
Glory to God ! we will shout evermore, 

Home at laat 'i 

Home at last ! ' H 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE HISTORY OF THE BROOKLYN TABEEXACLE, 



The church which is popularly known as the Brooklyn 
Tabernacle, but whose corporate title is the Central Presby- 
terian Church, has a history which, as a specimen of remark- 
ably and rapidly achieved success, has so many points of bril- 
liancy that it is not to be wondered at that it has already 
filled a large place in the local historic records, in which 
have been noted the great achievements in church enter- 
prises that form so distinguishing a characteristic of Brook- 
lyn. This rapid and remarkable growth, however, relates 
exclusively to its present pastorate. Previous to. that its 
advance was slow, and its career without remarkable inci- 
dent. Like most of the churches of that city, it had its 
inception in a mission Sunday-school. This school was 
organized by certain members of the Second Presby- 
terian Church, then under the care of the Rev. J. S. 
Spencer. A leader in the movement was Mr. John R. 
Morris, the senior elder of the church just named. He was 
chosen its first superintendent on July 19, 1834, and the 
school was held in a building in Prince street, and was 
known as the Prince Street Mission. This enterprise was 
prosecuted amid many various discouragements through a 
period of thirteen years. It culminated on April 13, 1849, 
when a church was organized with twenty-five members, 
under the corporate title of the Central Presbyterian 
Church of Brooklyn. Worship was held in the Sunday- 
school room for some months. The congregation then pur- 



LIFE OF REV. T. BE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 71 



chased the building which, in 1833, had been erected for a 
church by S. A. Willoughby, Esq., at the corner of Wil- 
loughby and Pearl Streets, and which had been used by the 
Fifth Presbyterian Church. This building is now known as 
the Central Auction Sales Room. The Rev. Nathaniel C. 
Locke was installed as the first pastor of the new church, 
and under his ministrations about fifty persons were added 
to its membership. Mr. Locke withdrew in 1850, and was 
succeeded by the Rev. Calvin Edson Rockwell, D.D., who 
was installed February 13, 1851. After a lapse of two years, 
the congregation determined to erect a new house of wor- 
ship. A sale of the "Willoughby Street property was ef- 
fected on January 24, 1853. In order to have a house of 
worship for immediate use, the congregation erected a tem- 
porary building, to which they gave the name of the Tab- 
ernacle. It was placed at the corner of State and Nevins 
streets, and was opened for public worship April 3, 1853. 
The building of the permanent structure in Schermerhorn 
street, near Nevins street, which then took the name of 
the Central Presbyterian Church, and which is now known 
as the Lay College Building, was begun, its corner-stone 
being laid November 4, 1853. As then completed, and as it 
stands to-day, it is a brick structure ninety-nine by sixty-two 
feet. The main auditorium contains one hundred and forty- 
four pews on the ground floor and forty-two in the gallery. 
The edifice has a basement the full size of the building. Its 
front is decorated with a portico of the Grecian Doric 
order. Its cost was about thirty thousand dollars. This 
edifice is now occupied by the present Tabernacle Congre- 
gation for the Sunday-school, the Lay College, prayer- 
meetings and church sociables. For some time after the 
erection of this church considerable success attended the 
ministrations of the Rev. Dr. Rockwell. In the winter of 



72 LIFE OF REY. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D.- 



1855 an extensive revival occurred, during which a large 
number were added to the membership. In the succeeding 
years a decline followed these successes. The great popu- 
larity and power of Rev. Dr. Cuylcr, whose church was so 
near by, drew away numbers, and a want of interest began 
to tell sadly upon the condition of affairs in the Central 
Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Dr. Rockwell continued 
on until 1868, when he felt it to be his duty to resign. The 
church was without a minister for a year following, and 
during that time its members dwindled rapidly, until, it is 
said, only nineteen persons had the courage to make an ef- 
fort to get a first-class minister and to resuscitate the 
church. Among those who did much to rouse the courage 
of this handful of faithful ones was Judge E. C. Con- 
verse, a gentleman of great faith, eloquence and influ- 
ence. He cast about him for a minister whose power as a 
preacher and a worker would build up the church. Through 
connections and acquaintances in the city of Philadelphia, 
the attention of Judge Converse was drawn to the then al- 
ready rising local fame of the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, 
then pastor of the First Reformed Church of that city. 
Mr. Converse determined on a vigorous effort to obtain 
Dr. Talmage as the minister of the Central Presbyterian 
Church. It seemed like a forlorn hope that a pulpit orator, 
whose fame was already beginning to fill the land, would 
heed, much less accept, a call from a poor struggling 
church. Be the result what it might, Judge Converse felt 
that the needs of the Central Presbyterian Church de- 
manded the highest effort, and, besides, he felt that the 
rising preacher could win a noble fame, and do as glorious 
a work in Brooklyn as anywhere else. Emboldened by the 
faithful Judge Converse, his associates commissioned him 
to h& the bearer of a call to Dr. Talmage. It did not damp 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 73 



the ardor of his hopes to find when he reached the home of 
Dr, Tahnage that four other calls, hacked by great influ- 
ence and power, were already ahead of that which he bore. 
One was from a leading church in San Francisco, another 
was from Boston, and another from Chicago, and H. M. 
Smith, the present editor-in-chief of the " Union," was one 
of the committee from that city, who carried that call to 
Dr. Talmage. Xow that that gentleman, whose mission at 
the time resulted only in keen disappointment, has, like 
Dr. Talmage, become a resident of Brooklyn, and identified 
with its material and religious interests, he is no doubt 
abundantly satisfied with the choice of the calls then made. 
Dr. Talmage has told to a few friends what a struggle of 
contending influences was produced in his mind by the pre- 
sentation of those five calls, and the beseeching cry not to 
leave them set up by the church in the midst of which he 
was so happily situated, and by which he was so greatly 
beloved. After repeated prayer for three days, he decided 
m favor of Brooklyn. 

The moment he made and announced his decision, his 
mind grew at ease, and though many of his congregation 
came to him with tears in their eyes to induce him to 
change his determination, he never wavered, as he saw his 
way clear. His first sermon under his present pastorate 
was preached on March 7, 1869, from the text, 6 God is 
love.' His fame as a preacher had preceded him to Brook- 
lyn, and from the very first every service he conducted 
was largely attended. Before the close of his first year the 
church saw that it would be necessary to construct a larger 
building to accommodate the crowds who flocked to hear 
him. The work of building a new edifice was begun in % 
June of the following year, IS 70, and completed in three 
months, This rapidity of construction was due to a re- 



74 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



markable peculiarity of design from an original plan made 
and elaborated by Dr. Talmage himself. The principal 
idea was that of a half-circle auditorium, with the platform 
placed midway between the two ends of the arc connecting 
the extremes of the semi-circle, and the passage-ways or 
aisles radiating out from the platform, and the floor rising 
from the platform outwardly. The construction of the 
building was also unique and peculiar. A rough wooden 
frame formed the exterior outline of the building. This 
frame was inclosed by strips of corrugated sheet iron so 
lapped as to form a continuous covering. The frame being 
covered in this way, both on the inside and the* outside, 
gave to the structure the appearance of one-half of an iron 
cylinder set on end. The roof over the structure was sup- 
ported by a series of eight pillars extending in semi-circular 
form along a radius drawn parallel to the outer radius, and 
about half-way from the platform to the main entrance. 
The organ, a splendid one by Hook of Boston, who built 
the Plymouth Church organ, was, as in the present Tab- 
ernacle, placed at the back of the platform, and the organ- 
ist's bank of keys and pedals were situated immediately in 
front of the platform. 

This new style of church auditorium was not only 
original with Dr. Talmage, but it was revolutionary in 
character. It upset the whole previous theory of church 
architecture and church seating. The superior acoustic 
properties of buildings thus internally arranged, and the 
advantages they possess in the matter of obtaining a good 
view of the speaker, were soon rendered so apparent that 
the style has since become exceedingly and deservedly 
popular. Many new churches have since adopted this plan. 
Among them may be mentioned the Central Congregational 
(Rev. Di\ Scudder's), and the younger Dr ; Tyng's Church, 



Life of rev. T* t>£ Witt talmage, d.d. 75 



at Forty-second street and Madison avenue, New York. 
A church is now being built at Toronto, which is a perfect 
fac-simile of the present Tabernacle. 

The old Tabernacle had no gallery. It had seats for two 
thousand nine hundred persons, and by bringing in camp- 
stools three thousand four hundred persons could be seated 
in it. During its construction Dr. Talmage was allowed 
leave of absence to visit Europe. He was escorted down 
the bay on the day of his departure by a large number of 
his congregation, and among the last sounds borne on his 
ears, as the escort-boat turned to go back to Brooklyn? 
were cheers for the Tabernacle, which the congregation 
had promised to have ready against his return. The con- 
gregation uobly redeemed their pledge; the old Tabernacle 
was completed early in September, 1870, and dedicated on 
Sunday, the 26th of the same month. The dedication ser- 
mon was preached by Dr. Talmage himself, in the presence 
of about four thousand people. Among the ministers who 
assisted on the occasion were the Rev. Messrs. Lockwood, 
Edward Eggleston, D.D., Galium, Butler, and Taylor. 
The text of the sermon was Luke xiv. 23, ' Compel them to 
come in.' From that time on, the history of the church 
was a constant series of successes. Many things about its 
edifice and its church management were regarded as experi- 
ments, and yet all of them had the happiest results. Beside 
the innovation of the church structure itself, Dr. Talmage 
set aside the practice of choir-singing, so much then in 
rogue, and insisted that all the Church music in the 
Tabernacle should be exclusively congregational. He also 
inundated the principle of free pews, and carried it into 
practical effect. 

THE OLD TABERNACLE ENLARGED. 

During the following year the old Tabernacle was en- 
larged by an addition which increased, its sitting capacity 



T6 LIFE OF RET. T. DE WITT TALLAGE, D e D. 



about five hundred. It was re-dedicated on Sunday, Sep- 
tember 10, 1871. 

The dedication sermon was preached by the venerable 
Rev. Dr. Ste])hen H. Tyng; the Rev. Dr. Irenaeus S. Prime, 
of the ZSTew York " Observer,'' and the Rev. J. Hyatt 
Smith, assisted at the service. The Rev. B. I. Ives, of the 
Methodist Church, made an appeal for pecuniary aid, and 
succeeded in obtaining pledges of sixteen thousand dollars 
towards the removal of the debt. At that time the whole 
cost of the edifice, including the organ, was about eighty 
thousand dollars, nearly all of which was paid, or pledged 
to be paid, by responsible members of the church. On a 
certain Saturday afternoon, a few days antecedent to 
Christmas of 1872, the church session met at the residence 
of Major B. R. Corwin, and having settled up the finances 
for the year, separated, congratulating themselves that they 
had passed through a series of glorious successes. 

THE OLD TABEEXACLE BURNED. 

As the members of the Tabernacle congregation were 
preparing to assemble for worship on Sunday morning., 
December 22, 1872, they were startled and saddened at 
finding their house enveloped in flames. At half -past ten, 
the time of commencing service, the building was falling: 
in ruins before their eyes. 

The fire broke out in less than an hour before, but so rapid 
was its progress that in thirty minutes the entire edifice was 
involved and doomed to destruction, despite the efforts of 
the firemen. The intelligence of the disaster spread rapidly 
over the city, and immediately expressions of sympathy 
flowed in from other churches to the houseless congrega- 
tion. Ten of them offered their own edifices to the Taber- 
nacle people for service* hi the afternoon and evening, in- 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 77 

eluding Plymouth Church, the Classon, Clinton and Lafay- 
ette Avenue Churches, the Elm Place Congregational, the 
First and Second. Presbyterian, two Baptist, and one Meth- 
odist Church. The invitation of Mr. Beecher's church was 
accepted, and the congregation attended services there in 
the evening, the occasion drawing a crowded audience. The 
pastor, Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, preached the sermon he 
had intended for the morning, alluding first, as follows, to 
the event of the day: 

" In the village where I once lived, on a cold night, there 
was a cry of fire. House after house was consumed. But 
there was in the village a large hospitable dwelling, and 
as soon as the people were burned out they came into 
this common center. The good man of the house stood at 
the door and said, c Come in,' and the little children as 
they were brought to the door, some of them wrapped in 
blankets and shawls, were taken up to bed, and the old 
people that came in from their consumed dwellings were 
seated around the fire. And the good man of the house 
told them that all would be well. This is a very cold day 
to be burned out. But we come into this hospitable home 
to-night, and gather around this great warm fire of Chris- 
tian kindness and love, and it is good to be here. The 
Lord built the Tabernacle and the Lord let it burn down. 
Blessed be the name of the Lord! We don't feel like sit- 
ting down in discouragement^ although the place was very 
dear. Our hearts there were filled with comfort; and to us, 
many a time, did Jesus appear — His face radiant as the sun. 
To-day, w T hen Christian sympathy came in from Plymouth 
Church, and from ten other churches of the city, all offer- 
ing their houses of worship to us, I must say I was deeply 
moved. Tell me not that there is no kindness between 
churches, or that there is no such thing as Christian brother- 



78 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

hood. Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian 
love!" 

A. CARD FROM DR. TALMAGE TO THE " CHRISTIAN AGE," 

LONDON. 

" Our Free Tabernacle is in ruins. We do not feel as if 
our work is yet done. We want a place to preach and hear 
the old-fashioned gospel of pardon and help for all men, 
through Jesus. We have during the past two years built 
the Tabernacle and sustained the Lay College. Hence, we 
have no financial strength left to meet this disaster. I ask 
the people, North, South, East and West, who love the 
cause of God, to help us out of this misfortune. 

" We want large help, and we want it immediately. 

"T. De Witt Talmage." 

That the readers of the Christian Age promptly and gen- 
erously responded to this appeal will be seen by the follow- 
ing letter; 

A LETTER FROM DR. TALMAGE. 

In acknowledgment of the contributions from the readers of 
the Christian Age towards the erection of the New Tab- 
ernacle: 

"Brooklyn, April 23, 1873 

" My dear Mr. Dickinson: 

" I cannot tell you how grateful I am to you, and the 
readers of the ' Christian Age,' for the very handsome con- 
tribution just received from you towards the rebuilding of 
our Tabernacle. My congregation feel your kindness very 
much. Convey to all our transatlantic friends our thanks 
and love; and tell them if they evei have a big fire over 
there, to let us know. 

"The rebuilding has already begun, and we shall have a 
church by the latter part of next September very muah 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 79 



larger than before — holding at least 2,000 more than oui 
former Tabernacle. 

" Yon ask for lectures, &c. If yon desire to open a lit- 
erary column for me, I will fill it for a year with articles 
somewhat secular, but all having a moral, and most of them 
a religious bearing. I will send you, as the first instalment 
of articles, the American edition of ' Crumbs Swept Up;' 
one-half of which have never been published in England. I 
will mark in the index those more appropriate; and, also, 
other sketches as I may prepare them, such as 6 Sink or 
or Swim,' an article which you published. 

" We last night closed the year of our Tabernacle Free 
Lay College. We have six hundred students preparing for 
different kinds of Christian work. It has been ar very pros- 
perous } r ear, and students have accomplished much good in 
their preaching stations. I will send you, with the next 
mail, my address at the close of the session. Within the 
last few weeks I have received* many letters from England 
and Scotland, giving me encouraging accounts of how God 
iS blessing my sermons and books to the comfort and salva- 
tion of men. Your 6 Christian Age ' must go almost every- 
where. 

The Lord prosper your printing-press. 

"Yours, &c, 

" T. De Witt Taumage. 

THINGS NOT BURNED UP. 

i " The Brooklyn Tabernacle is gone! The bell that hung 
m its tower last Sabbath morning rang its own funeral 
knell. On that day we gathered from our homes with our 
families to hear what Christ had of comfort and inspiration 
for His people. We expected to meet cheerful smiles and 
' warm, handshakings, and the triumphant song, and the large 



80 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



brotherhood that characterized that blessed place ; but 
coming to the doors, we found nothing but an excited 
populace and a blazing church. People who had given 
until they deeply felt it, saw all the results of their benevo- 
lence going down into ashes, and, on that cold morning, the 
tears froze on the cheeks of God's people as they saw they 
were being burned out. Brooklyn Tabernacle is gone! 
The platform on which it was my joy to stand with messages 
of salvation; the pews in which you listened and prayed, 
and wept and rejoiced; the altars around which you and 
your children were consecrated in baptism; the communion- 
table where we celebrated the Savior's love — all that scene 
which to us was the shining gate of heaven, is gone! I 
will not hide the loss. If I ever forget the glorious Sab- 
baths we spent there, and the sweet reunions, and the 
mighty demonstrations of God's spirit among the people, 
may my right hand forget her cunning, and my soul be left 
desolate! But we have not come here to sound a dirge. 
c All things work together for good to them that love God.' 
Sorrows are loathsome things, but they arc necessary. 
They are leeches that suck out the hot inflammation from 
the soul. ' Weeping may endure for a night, but joy 
cometh in the morning.' I could cover up all this place 
with promises of hope and peace, and comfort and deliver- 
ance. Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 

" I am here to-night not to preach a formal sermon, but 
to tell you of some things that last Sabbath were not 
burned up. 

"First, the spirit of Christian brotherhood was not con- 
sumed. You never greeted the members of our church 
with such cordiality as this week on the street, in cars, and 
on the ferries. You stood on no cold formalities. The 
■people who during the last two years sat on the other side 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 81 



of the aisle, whose faces were familiar to you, but to whom 
you had never spoken, you greeted them this week with 
smiles and tears, as you said: 'Well, the old place is gone. 1 
You did not want to seem to cry, and so you swept the 
sleeve near the corner of the eye, and pretended it was the 
sharp wind that made your eyes weak. Ah! there was 
nothing the matter with your eyes; it was your soul bub- 
bling over. I tell you that it is impossible to sit for two 
or three years around the same church fireside and not have 
sympathies in common. Somehow you feel that you would 
like those people on the other side of the aisle, about whom 
you know but little, prospered and pardoned, and blessed 
and saved. You feel as if you are in the same boat, and 
you want to glide up the same harbor, and want to disem- 
bark at the same wharf. If you put gold and iron and lead 
and zinc in sufficient heat, they will melt into a conglom- 
erate mass; and I really feel that last Sabbath's fire has 
fused us all, grosser and finer natures, into one. It seems 
as if we all had our hands on a wire connected with an 
electric battery, and when this church sorrow started, it 
thrilled through the whole circle, and we all felt the shock. 
The oldest man and the youngest child could join hands in 
this misfortune. Grandfather said : 'I expected from those 
altars to be buried;' and one of the children last Sabbath 
cried: ' I don't want the Tabernacle to burn, I have been 
there so many times.' . You may remember that over the 
organ we had the words: ' One Lord, one faith, one bap- 
tism.' That was our creed. Well, that is all burned down, 
but the sentiment is engraved with such durability in our 
soul that no earthly fire can scorch it, and the flames of the 
judgment-day will have no power to burn it. 

"Another thing that did not burn up is the cross of 
Christ. That is used to the fire. On the dark day when 



82 LIFE OF REV, T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



Jesus died, the lightning struck it from above, and the 
flames of hell dashed up against it from beneath. That 
tearful, painful, tender, blessed cross still stands. On it 
we hang all our hopes; beneath it Ave put down all our sins; 
in the light of it we expect to make the rest of our pilgrim- 
age. Within sight of such a sacrifice, who can feel he has 
it hard? In the sight of such a symbol, who can be dis- 
couraged, however great the darkness that may come down 
upon him? Jesus lives ! The loving, patient, sympathizing, 
mighty Jesus ! It shall not be told on earth, or in hell, or in 
heaven, that three Hebrew children had the Son of God 
beside them in the fire, and that a whole church was for- 
saken by the Lord when they went through a furnace one 
hundred and fifty-three feet front by one hundred deep. 
O Lord Jesus ! shall we take out of Thy hand the flowers, 
and the fruifs, and the brightness, and the joys, and then 
turn away because Thou dost give us one cup of bitterness 
to drink ? Oh ! no, Jesus, we will drink it dry. But how 
it is changed ! Blessed Jesus, what hast thou put into the 
cup to sweeten it ? Why, it has become the wine of heaven, 
and our souls grow strong. I come down to-night, and 
place both of my feet deep down into the blackened ashes 
of our consumed church, and I cry out with an exhiliration 
that I never felt since the day of my soul's emancipation: 
' Victory ! victory ! through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

" 'Your harps, ye trembling saints, 
Down from the willows take ; 
Loud to the praise of Love divine 
Bid every string awake. 1 

"L remark, again, that the catholicity of the Christian 
churches has not been burned up. We are in the Academy 
to-day, not because we have no other place to go. Last 
Sabbath morning, at nine o'clock, we had but one church j 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 83 



now we have twenty-five at our disposal. Their pastors 
and their trustees say: 'You may take our main au- 
dience-rooms, you may take our lecture-rooms, you may 
take our church parlors, you may baptize in our bap- 
j tisteries, and sit on our anxious seats.' Oh! if there be 
any larger-hearted ministers or larger-hearted churches 
anywhere than in Brooklyn, tell me where they are, 
that I may go and see them before I die. The millen- 
nium has come. People keep wondering when it is coming. 
It has come. The lion and the lamb lie down together, and 
the tiger eats straw like an ox. I should like to have seen 
two of the old-time bigots with their swords fighting through 
that great fire on Schermerhorn street last Sabbath. I am 
sure the swords would have melted, and they who wielded 
them would have learned war no more. I can never say a 
word against any other denomination of Christians. I 
thank God I never have been tempted to do it. I cannot 
be a sectarian. I have been told I ought to be, and I have 
tried to be, but I have not enough material in me to make 
such a structure. Every time I get the thing most done, 
there comes a fire, or something else, and all is gone. 
The angels of God sing out on this Christmas air: ' Glory 
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward 
men.' I do not think the day is far distant when all the 
different branches of the Presbyterian Church will be one, 
and all the different branches of the Methodist Church will 
be one, and all the different branches of the Episcopal 
Church will be one. I do not know, but I see on the hori- 
zon the first gleam of the morning which shall unite all 
evangelical denominations in one organization; churches 
distinguished from each other, not by a variety of creeds, 
but difference of locality, as it was in the time of the 
Apostles. It was then the Church of Thyatira, and the 



M LIFE OF RET. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



Church of Tkessalonica, and the Church of Antioch, and 
the Church of Laodicea. So, I do not know but that in 
the future history, and not far off either, it may be simply 
a distinction of locality and not of creed, as the Church of 
Xew York, the Church of Brooklyn, the Church of Boston, 
the Church of Charlestown, the Church of Madras, the 
Church of Constantinople. 

"My dear brethren, we cannot afford to be severely divi- 
ded. Standing in front of the great foes of our common 
Christianity, we want to put on the whole armor of God, 
and march down in solid column, shoulder to shoulder, one 
Commander, one banner, one triumph. 

" 1 The trumpet gives a martial strain: 
Oh Israel ! gird thee for a fight ; 
Arise, the combat to maintain, 
Arise, and put thy foes to flight.' 

"I have to announce, also, among the things not burned 
up is Heaven. Fires may sweep through other cities — we 
heard the toiling of the bell as we came in to-night; but I 
am glad to know that the New Jerusalem is fire-proof. 
There will be no engines rushing through those streets; 
there will be no temples consumed in that city. Coming 
to the doors of that church, we will find them open, reso- 
nant with songs, and not cries of fire. O my dear brother 
and sister! if this short lane of life comes up so soon to 
that blessed place, what is the use of our worrying? I have 
felt a good many times this last week like Father Taylor, 
the sailor-preacher. He got into a long sentence while he 
was preaching one day, and lost himself, and could not find 
his way out of the sentence. He stopped, and said: 
'Brethen, I have lost the nomination of this sentence, and 
things are generally mixed up, but I am bound for the 
kingdom anyhow.' And duni:^ this last week, when I saw 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 85 



the rushing to and fro, and the excitement, I said to my- 
self: 'X do not know just where we shall start again, but I 
am bound for the kingdom anyhow.' I do not want to go 
just yet. I want to be pastor of this people until I am 
about eighty-nine years of age, but I have sometimes 
thought that there are such glories ahead that I might be 
persuaded to go a little earlier; for instance, at eighty-two 
or eighty-three; but I really think that if we could have 
an appreciation of what God has in reserve for us, we would 
want to go to-night, stepping right out of the Academy of 
Music into the glories of the skies. Ah! that is a good 
land. Why, they tell me that in that land they never have 
a heart-ache. They tell me that a man might walk five 
hundred years in that land and never see a tear, nor hear a 
sigh. They tell me of our friends who have left us and 
gone there that their faces are radiant as the sun. And 
they tell me that there is no winter there, and that they 
never get hungry or cold, and that the sewing girl nevef 
wades through the December snow-bank to her daily toil, 
and that the clock never strikes twelve for the night, but 
only twelve for the day. 

" See that light in the window ? I wonder who set it 
there. 'Oh!' you say, ' my father that went into glory 
must have set that light in the window.' No, guess again. 
' My mother, who died fifteen years ago in Jesus, I think 
must have set that light there.' No, guess again. You 
say: 'My darling little child that last summer I put away 
for the resurrection, I think she must have set that light 
there iri the window.' No, guess again. Jesus set it there, 
and He will keep it burning until the day we put our finger 
on the latch of the door, and go in to be at home forever. 
Oh ! when my sight gets black in death, put on my eyelids 
that sweet ointment. When in the last weariness I cannot 



86 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



take another step, just help me to put my foot on that 
door-sill. When my ear catches no more the voices of wife 
and child, let me go right in to have my deafness cured by 
the stroke of the harpers, whose fingers fly over the strings 
with the anthems of the free. Heaven never burns down ! 
The fires of the last day, that are already kindled in the 
heart of the earth, but are hidden because God keeps down 
the hatches — those internal fires will after a while break 
though the crust, and the plains and the mountains and the 
seas will be consumed, and the flames will fling their long 
arms into the skies, but all the terrors of a burning world 
will do no more harm to that heavenly temple than the fires 
of the setting sun which kindle up the window glass of 
the house on yonder hill-top. Oh, blessed land ! But I 
do not want to go there until I see the Brooklyn Taber- 
nacle rebuilt. You say, ' Will it be ? ' You might as well 
ask me if the sun will rise to-morrow morning, or if the 
next spring will put garlands on its head. You and I may 
not do it — you and I may not live to see it; but the Church 
of God does not stand on two legs nor a thousand legs. 1 
am here to tell you that among the things not burned up is 
our determination, in the strength and help of God, to go 
forward. 

" You say : ' Where are you going to get the means ? 
Don't know. The building of the Tabernacle within twc 
years, and then an enlargement, at great expense, within 
that same time, and the establishment and the maintenance 
of the Lay College, have taken most of our funds. Did I 
say just now that I did not know where the funds are to 
come from ? I take that back. I do ! I do ! from the 
hearts of the Christian people, and the lovers of the cause 
of morality, all over this land. I am sure they will help 
us, and we shall go on, and the new structure shall rise. 



LIFE OF RET. T. DE WITT TALMA GE, D.D. 87 



How did the Israelites get through the Red Sea ? I sup- 
pose somebody may have come and said: 'There is no need 
of trying; you will get your feet wet, you will spoil your 
clothes, you will drown yourselves. Who ever heard of 
getting through such a sea as that ? ' How did they get 
through it ? Did they go back ? Xo ! Did they go to 
the right ? Xo ! Did they go to the left ? Xo ! They 
went forward in the strength of the Lord Almighty, and that 
is the way we mean to get through the Red Sea. Do you tell 
me that God is going to let the effort for the establishment of 
a free Christian church in Brooklyn fail ? Why, on the 
dedication day of our Tabernacle, I was not more confident 
and was not so happy as I am now. That building did its 
work. We wanted to support a free Christian church; 
we did it, and got along pleasantly and successfully, and 
demonstrated the fact. The building is gone. The ninety- 
five souls received at the first communion in that building 
more than paid us for all the expenditure. We only put 
up the Tabernacle for two years. Do you know that ? 
Here sits a member of the Board of Trustees right under 
me, and he remembers that when we built we said: 'We 
shall put it up for two years, it will be a temporary resi- 
dence, and at the close of that time we will know how large 
a building we want, and what style of building we want.' 
But having put it up, we liked it so well, we concluded to 
stay there permanently. But God decided otherwise, and 
I take it as one of the providential indications of that fear- 
ful disaster that we are to build a larger church, and ask 
all the people to come in and be saved. You know how we 
were crowded, and pushed, and jammed in that building ; 
and last summer some of us talked about an enlargement^ 
but we found it impossible without changing the whole 
structure of the building. The difficulty now is gone; and 



88 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



if the people North, South, East and West will help us, we 
shall build on a larger scale, and the hundreds and thou- 
sands who have wanted to be- with us, but could not, shall 
have room for themselves and families, where they may 
come and be comforted in their sorrows, and by the grace 
of the Lord Jesus, find out the way to heaven. Do you 
tell me that the human voice cannot reach more people 
than we used to have there ? It is a mistake. I have been 
w r earing myself out for the last two years in trying to keep 
my Toice in. Give me room where I can preach the glories 
of Christ and the grandeurs of heaven. 

" The old iron-clad has gone down by a shot midships. 
We will build next time of brick. The building shall be 
amphitheatrical in shape; it shall be very large; it shall be 
very plain. Whether the material will be any better than 
the one used in the old strueture, I cannot say, for there are 
four things that God has demonstrated within a short time 
are not fire proof. One is corrugated iron; witness the 
Brooklyn Tabernacle. Another is brick; witness the fire 
last week in Centre street, New York, Another is Joliet 
stone; witness Chicago. Another is Quincy granite; wit- 
ness Boston. Why, when God rises up to burn anything, a 
stone wall is shavings. Hear that, O you men who are 
building on nothing but earthly foundations. The people 
will rise up, and all our friends North, South, East and 
West, who have been giving us their sympathies, will trans- 
late their sympathies and their 1 God bless youV into 
' greenbacks,' and next winter the people will cry out : ' The 
glory of the second temple is greater than the first.' 

f • There was a king of olden time who prided himself on 
doing that which his people thought impossible; and it 
ought to be the joy of the Christian Church to accomplish 
that which the world thinks cannot be done. 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 8S 



" But I want you to know that it will require more prayer 
than we have ever offered, and more hard work than we 
have ever put forth. Mere skirmishing around the mercy- 
seat will not do. "We have got to take the kingdom of 
heaven by violence. We have got to march on, breaking 
down all bridges behind us, making retreat impossible. 
Throw away your knapsack if it impedes your march. 
Keep your sword-arm free. Strike for Christ and His 
kingdom while you may. No people ever had a better mis- 
sion than you are sent on. Prove yourselves worthy. If I 
am not fit to be your leader, set me aside. The brightest 
goal on earth that I can think of is a country parsonage 
amid the mountains. But I am not afraid to lead you. I 
have a few hundred dollars, they are at your disposal. I 
have good physical health, it is yours as long as it lasts. 
I have an enthusiasm of soul; I will not keep it back from 
your service. I have some faith in God, and I shall direct 
it toward the rebuilding of our new spiritual home. Come 
on, then! I will lead you. Come on, ye aged men, not yet 
passed over Jordan! Give us one more lift before you go 
into the promised land. You men in mid-life, harness all 
your business faculties to this enterprise. Young men, put 
the fire of your soul in this work. Let women consecrate 
their persuasiveness and persistence to this cause, and they 
will be preparing benedictions for their dying hour and 
everlasting rewards; and if Satan really did burn that Tab- 
ernacle down, as some people say he did, he will find it the 
poorest job he ever undertook. 

" Good-bye, Old Tabernacle! your career was short but 
blessed; your ashes are precious in our sight. In the last 
day may we be able to meet the songs there sung, and the 
prayers there offered, and the sermons there preached! 
Good-bye, old place, where some of us first felt the Gosp^i 



90 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



peace, and others heard the last message ere they tied away 
into the skies! Good-bye, Brooklyn Tabernacle of 1870 s . 

"But welcome our new church (I see it as plainly as though 
it were already built)! Your walls firmer; your gates 
wider; your songs more triumphant; your ingatherings 
more glorious. Rise out of the ashes, and greet our wait- 
ing yision. Burst on our souls, O day of our church's res- 
urrection! By your altars, may we be prepared for the 
hour when the fire shall try every man's work of what sort 
it is. TTelcome, Brooklyn Tabernacle of 1873! " 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE NEW TABERNACLE. 

Undismayed by the loss, while the smoke of the mini 
was yet arising, measures were adopted for the erection of 
a new Tabernacle, and for raising funds for that purpose. 
The sympathy of the surrounding congregations was warm 
and hearty. The congregation sought a temporary home 
in the Academy of Music and for fourteen months they 
worshiped there. The very first service was preceded by a 
prayer-meeting held in the directors' room of the Academy, 
followed by a general prayer-meoting at the close of the 
sermon. These prayer-meetings were prominent features 
of religious worship as conducted by Dr. Talmage during 
the time he occupied the Academy of Music, and are still 
continued. 

Architect John Welsh was called upon to furnish plans 
for the new Tabernacle. He emphatically made it a labor 
of love, and set himself studiously to the task of evolving 
designs, which, while they carried out the main features of 
the old Tabernacle, would introduce many improvements. 
That he succeeded most admirably is the universal verdict 
of all who have visited the new Tabernacle. The corner- 
stone of the new edifice was laid June, 1873, in the presence 
of a great crowd of people. The services were conducted 
by the Rev. Di\ Prime, of the Presbyterian Church; Rev. 
Dr. Dowling, of the Baptist Church; and the Rev. Dr. 
Ward, of the Congregational Church. The erection of the 
building was pushed with the utmost dispatch, and the 



92 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D D, 



building committee received the hearty plaudits of the 
congregation for the energy and efficiency displayed by 
them in forwarding the work. It w T as completed and dedi- 
cated on February 22, 1874, in the presence of the largest 
congregation that ever assembled in the city. The dedica- 
tory sermon was preached by the Rev. Byron Sunderland^ 
D.D., chaplain of the United States Senate, on the text, 
<J The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that 
of the former, saith the Lord of hosts," Haggai ii. 9. The 
ministers who assisted at this service were the Rev. Dr. 
Duryea, Rev. Dr. Crooks, Rev. Dr. Dowling, Rev. Dr. 
French, Rev. Dr. Ball, and Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. As 
on the occasion of the dedication of the former Tabernacle, 
the Rev. Dr. Ives, of the Methodist Church, made the appeal 
for pecuniary aid, and in response to their appeal some forty 

' thousand dollars were pledged. The Brooklyn Tabernacle 
is the largest Protestant church in America. It is in the 
form of a Greek cross, with a front on Schermerhorn street 
of one hundred and fifty feet, while the length of the trans- 
verse section is one hundred and twelve feet. The lower 
floor furnishes sitting accommodation for thirty-one hun- 
dred persons, and the gallery for fifteen hundred. About 
five hundred persons can be accommodated with camp 

♦ chairs and standing-room. The gallery is supported by iron 
columns, and is reached by stairways from the front 
porches. Three beautiful arched windows, highly ornamen- 
ted with stained glass, throw a flood of soft light upon the 
auditorium in the daytime. Three magnificent chandeliers 
and a series of bracket lights attached to the wall shed a 
blaze of brilliant light over the audience assembled in the 
evening. All these lighxs are simultaneously lighted by 
means of an electric apparatus. Among the valuable pecu- 
liarities of the building is its many entrances. There are 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 93 



twenty "two in all, and so ready and convenient that an au- 
dience of five thousand persons can pass out of the building in 
four minutes. Another remarkable peculiarity is its excellent 
ventilation. Perfectly uniform heat can be maintained, and 
at the same time complete purity of the atmosphere be pre- 
served. It is regarded by the best judges in America as 
the most perfect audience-chamber on the continent, espe- 
cially in regard to accoustic properties, and in affording ad- 
vantages to every sitter to see the speaker, and in its means 
to preserve the purity of its internal atmosphere. The organ 
is the largest ever built by its makers, Jardine and Sons. 
Every conceivable improvement known to organ-builders 
at the time of its construction was incorporated into it. 
Among its novel features is the " Vox Humana," which is 
regarded as a nearer approach to the real human voice than 
anything which has been previously invented. Another 
novelty is the chime of bells ordered from London. Still 
another is the "song trumpet," whose clear tones have all 
the ring of a cornet. Under the touch of that master of har- 
monies, Professor George W. Morgan, aided by the voices 
of five thousand people, the church melodies of the Brook- 
lyn Tabernacle have seldom been equaled in any place of 
Divine worship. The building, with the ground, cost one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and will accommodate 
five thousand people. 

DE. TALMAGE's SIXTH ANNIVERSARY. 

" Standing before you this morning, preaching my sixth 
anniversary sermon as your pastor — a style of sermon in 
which the preacher is generally expected to be more than 
usually personal — I have to tell you that the burdens of 
life are getting to me less and less, and that as the years 
pass ou I have fewer and still fewer anxieties. In beautiful 



94 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



Belleville, on the banks of the Passaic, where I begaa 
my Christian ministry, it seemed as if all the work came 
down on my young shoulders. Going to the West 3 the 
field was larger and the care less. Going: to Philadelphia, 
the field was still larger and the care still less. Ana stand- 
ing to-day, as I do, among hundreds of warm personal 
friends, whose hands and feet and hearts are all willing to 
help, I have less anxiety than I ever had. I have taken the 
advice of Jethro, and have gathered around me a great many 
with whom I expect to divide all the care and the responsi- 
bility; and though sometimes, what with tne care of this 
church where we have a perpetual religious awakening, and 
the conducting of a religious weekly newspaper, and the 
conducting of the Lay College, people have often addressed 
me in words similar to those of the text : ' Thou wilt surely 
wear away; this thing is too heavy for thee,' I am glad to 
tell you that I am in perfect health and ready to recount to 
you what the Lord has been doing in all these days of our 
sojourn together, between 1869 and 1875. 

" It is now six years since I preached to you my opening 
sermon, on the text, 6 God is love.' I wish I could pour 
out my soul this morning in a doxology of praise to God 
and of gratitude to this people. The difference between 
these years has been that the second was happier to me 
than the first, and the third than the second, and the fourth 
than the third, and the fifth than the fourth, and the sixth 
than the fifth. God has led us through many vicissitudes. 
"We are in the third church in six years; crowded out of the 
first, burned out of the second, by the mercy of God led 
into the third. We look back to the solitary service 
six years ago in the old chapel, with a congregation that 
almost could be accommodated on this platform. For 
many the ekv-vok "o&d been in strife until the three or 



LIFE OF REV, T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 95 



four parties had exterminated each other, leaving an ex- 
panse of empty pews, a wheezy organ, a cramped-up pulpit, 
and a steeple the laughing-stock of the town. My personal 
friends applied to me an emphatic word of four letters, 
and two letters alike, in expressing my folly in undertaking 
this enterprise. Indeed it seemed heavier than to start 
entirely new, for there were widespread prejudices in re- 
gard to the church. Still we went on. By the blessing of 
God in three or four weeks our church was filled, and it is 
astonishing how well an old building looks when it is all 
occupied, for there is no power in graceful arch, or in carved 
pillar, or in exquisite fresco to adorn a place like an audience 
of beaming countenances. I had rather preach in a full 
barn than in a sparsely-attended cathedral. Empty pews 
are non-conductors of Gospel electricity. People came in 
from all ranks and conditions, and, in looking over the 
audience to-day, I cannot see more than four or five families 
who were with us six years ago. Some of them have been 
advanced into the better society of heaven, while some of 
them dropped off because they thought we were going too 
fast and they could not keep up. We went on gathering 
the people in from all ranks and conditions, until we have 
here to-day the rich and the poor, the wise and the ignorant ; 
those who toil with pen, with printing-press, with yard- 
stick, and with hammer. Enough physicians — allopathic, 
homoeopathic, hydropathic, and eclectic — to treat us in all 
our disorders. Enough lawyers to defend us in all our 
le^al contests, Enough artists to cover our walls with 
pictures. Enough merchants to give us the necessary fabrics, 
whether foreign or domestic. Enough mechanics to build 
and polish, and make comfortable for us our residences. 
And I will say that never did there come together in one 
anureL & crowd of more genial, intelligent, sympathetic, 



96 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



enthusiastic, and warm-hearted Christian people than those 
which assemble here. We are all of one mind and heart. 
We cordially greet all who come, and give a God-speed to 
those who go. When anybody does not like the music, or 
the preaching, or the plan on which our church is conducted, 
we say 'Good-bye' as cheerfully as when he came we said 
'How do you do? 5 This church is now so large, that if a 
man wants to make trouble, such a small portion hear of it 
that he soon gives up the undertaking as a dead failure. 

"We are. all now together. We tarried long enough in 
the old tabernacle to learn how to conduct a larger church. 
Then, when it was time for us to graduate from that, we 
got our diploma in red scroll of flame, signed, sealed, and 
delivered on one cold December day, in IS 72. When that 
conflagration took place, through inadequate insurance com 
sequent upon the style of material of which the old build- 
ing was constructed, we lost everything save our faith in 
God and our determination to go ahead. We tarried in 
the Academy of Music long enough to gather up hundreds 
of the best families of our congregation who are worship- 
ing with us to-day, and to get a baptism of the Holy Ghost 
such as was never poured out on any church on this conti- 
nent. We came into this building with the blessing of 
God, and with the blessing of all denominations of Christ- 
ians in this land and in Great Britain; and since we have 
been here the Lord has mightily blessed us, pouring out 
His Spirit from Sabbath to Sabbath, so that I can ask you, 
well knowing what your answer will be, whether you have 
made any too great sacrifices for Christ and His kingdom ? 
During these six years the Lord has sorely tried us; in the 
fu st place,. by calling us to build a church with a new con- 
gregation that had not at all been consolidated; then by 
the demolition of that building; then by taking us a mile 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE. D.D. 9? 



off from the center of our congregation, to worship in an- 
other building; then by the almost superhuman effort of 
putting up this building during a financial depression such 
as never before afflicted this country. If God had not 
helped the architect, and helped the trustees, and helped 
the people, we should have perished in the undertaking; 
and while I wish to-day to recognize the indomitable per- 
severance and sacrifices of the congregation, I must say, 10 
God belongs the glory. He planned this structure, making 
it perfect in acoustics; raising money for the building out 
of the very jaws of a national panic; filling the house with 
worshipers. O, let us praise Him now and let us praise 
Him forever. I say you are not sorry for any of the sacri- 
fices or toils through which you have gone. We have had 
so perpetually the blessing of God in this church that it 
excites no remark when from a single service hundreds of 
souls step out into the kingdom of Jesus. There are in 
almost all the towns and cities of this country those resi- 
dents who in this building first woke up to their spiritual 
necessities. Letters come from north and south, and east 
and west, from the Canadas, and from both sides the sea, 
telling me of this fact, O that to-day we might make some 
fitting expression to the Lord! Shall it be in carved words 
upon the pillars ? Shall it be in wreaths upon the wall? 
Shall it be in the organ's open diapason ? All that is well, 
but rather let it be that our hearts shall rise to God in an 
intense and all-conquering acclamation of thanksgiving. 
We are trying here to maintain a well-balanced church, 
and for that reason we have in all departments of Christian 
service the old and the young. It is a bad thing for a 
church when the old people have all the management, or 
when the young people have all the management. In the 
one case the church will go on too slow, in the other it will 



98 LIFE OB' REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



go too fast. We want the fast men to keep the slow men 
from going too slow, and the slow men to keep the fast 
people from going too fast. Here are many of the aged. 
They have come down to us from another day. Not on 
their brow the snows of many winters* as people often say, 
but the white crocuses of an everlasting spring-time into 
which they are about to blossom. And how many of the 
young coming to us Sabbath by Sabbath! We want them 
all equipped for God. We want them for flying artillery 
in a double-quick march. When there is a storming party 
to be made up, we want to wheel them into line — old men 
for counsel, young men for action. 

" We are also trying to maintain a musical church. We 
have an inborn antipathy to anything like stilted and 
precise song in the house of God. We like orato- 
rios, orchestras, concerts, and prima donnas in their 
places; but we want vociferous singing in the house of the 
Lord. David cries out; ' Sing aloud unto God.' In other 
words, do not hum or mumble it. O for an anthem strong 
enough to surge the whole audience on the beach of heaven! 
Persuaded that we could not do the work so well by the 
use of a choir, we have called into the service of the church 
two Bible instruments— the organ and the cornet, and so 
the music of the church has been sustained, and led, and 
developed. O what grand and glorious singing we have 
had during the past years; even people who had bronchitis 
forgetting their infirmity, and lifting aloud their voice be- 
fore God; people who could not sing a note opening theit 
mouth, reckless as to what kind of a sound came out of it; 
but the little discord is overwhelmed in the great symphony 
■ — a chirp drowned in the great rush of waters. And yet 
we feel this morning that we have not done what we might, 
or ought, or will do, in this department of Christian service- 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 99 

We want more heart under it, more soul flung into it. We 
. want the whole audience roused up to the sound of jubilee. 
We want the people to come from their homes on Sabb th 
with hymn-books, and after the preacher shall announce 
the hymn, we want them to find the right page and clear 
their throats, and at the first throb of the cornet on the ~ 
air stretch themselves up to the magnificence and glory of 
this exercise. History tells us of a shout the Persian host 
lifted so loud that the eagles that were flying through the 
air were stunned, and dropped to the earth. O that there 
might go up such a congregational anthem from this house 
of the Lord as shall make all heaven drop in blessing on our 
souls! I take partly the words of the Bible, and partly my 
own words, and say; c Why are ye so slack to go up and 
possess the orchards, and the vineyards, and the mountains 
of sacred song?' O that the music of heaven and earth 
might join midway the arches! Rise, O song of earth! De- 
scend, O song of heaven! 

"Still further: we are trying to maintain in this place a 
church aggressive and revolutionary. Why build or main- 
tain any other church in this city of churches, where there 
are enough to accommodate all the people who are disposed 
to go to the house of God on the Sabbath, and perhaps more 
than enough? If you have nothing particular, nothing 
unique, nothing different, then what a waste of bricks, and 
brawn, and brain. But we have an idea of a church. We 
have built this house of God as a place where we mean to 
bombard iniquity. We want to smash sin without any 
apology for smashing it. We have started in this line and 
we mean to keep on, and study to be as well pleased with 
curses as blessings from the people. If there are any of you 
who do not like to go to a church which is assaulted of many 
newspapers, and of the outside world, who cannot understand 



Lof C. 



100 LIFE OF KEY, T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D e 



its policies and its principleSj stand clear of this church. 
AYe mean until the day of our death, and for a few 
days after, to keep society stirred up by the discussion of 
themes vital to its interests, and vital to the interests of the 
immortal soul. During the past six months theatrical people 
have been after us, and the Spiritualists have been after us, 
and the Unitarians have been after us, and the Universal- 
ists have been after us — one of their prominent men recently 
saying that he did not think there would be any hell except 
for one man, and that the pastor of the Brooklyn Taber- 
nacle! But still we go on, as God gives us strength, and 
health, and spirit to do His will. We have only taken, as 
it were, the outside casement of this great rampart of in- 
iquity. On! on! 'If God be for us, who can be against 
us?' 

" Still further: we are trying here to maintain a generous 
church. We have as a church been able to do but little for 
outside charities, for the reason that we have been all the 
time building churches or enlarging them. But we are 
trying to maintain an organism on the voluntary principle. 
We believe that a church can be educated up to the duty 
and the joy of giving. We put no premium on financial 
meanness. "We believe that people ought to give to the 
cause of God every farthing they can possibly give. More- 
over, we believe that all can give something, and that the 
vast majority of the people could give more in our churches 
than they do and be better off. We believe that the grand- 
est investment a man ever makes for this world, or the 
world to come, is what he gives to the Church of God, 
since Christ pays him back five-fold, ten-fold, fifty-fold, a 
hundred-fold. In other words, we believe that a man is 
better off in this world if he is generous, and well-off just 
in proportion as he is generous; and we believe that those 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 101 



people who give the most in proportion to their means will 
after a while have the finest houses on earth and the grand- 
est mansions in heaven. The stingy people keep poor, the 
generous get rich, as a general rule. It is the old principle 
of the Bible: 'Cast thy bread upon the waters, and it shall 
return to thee after many days.' So I believe if a man 
takes the old Bible principle, and gives one-tenth of all his 
income to the cause of God, he has an insurance of pros- 
perity such as the signature of the Bank of England can- 
not give him. I believe our congregation will yet rise up 
to the positive rapture of giving. We believe that men 
can be so built on a large scale of heart, that they will 
look over their property, and then say: 'I will give so 
much towards my spiritual culture. I will give so much 
towards the spiritual culture of my wife. I will give so 
much towards the spiritual culture of my children. I will 
give so much towards the spiritual culture of those who 
have little or no means. How small it seems, this that I 
am giving to Christ who gave everything to me. I wish it 
were five hundred thousand times more.' Yes, we believe 
that the time will come when people will be so educated in 
this matter of Christian generosity, that instead of deciding 
by what other people give, or what people give in other 
churches, they shall give according to their own apprecia- 
tion of the height, and depth, and length, and breadth, and 
infinity of their spiritual advantages. Do you not wish you 
had given that three thousand dollars to the cause of Christ 
that went down in Northern Pacific Bonds ? 

" I believe the time will come in the Church when the pass- 
ing of a contribution plate or a subscription paper will kindle 
up the faces of the people as by the illumination of a great 
satisfaction. But now how many of us begrudge the few 
dollars we give to the Lord, and only give when we seem to 



102 LIFE OF EEV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



be compelled to give, and so keep ourselves poor at the 
store and rob ourselves of eternal dividends. Under the 
old dispensation, as I intimated, the people gave one-tenth 
of their property to the Lord, but that was a far inferior 
dispensation to the one we have; and yet how few in this day 
who receive a thousand dollars a year give a hundred to God. 
how few who receive five thousand give five hundred to God, 
how few who receive a hundred thousand give ten thousand 
to God. Those Jews, under their dark dispensation, gave 
one-tenth for a mere taper of spiritual life and light, while 
we do not give as much as that though we have noonday 
radiating the atmosphere. I really think that if those old 
J ews gave one-tenth for their half-and-half advantages, we 
ought to give one-fifth for the glorious privileges which 
God in this day has bestowed upon us. We talk a great 
deal about the evangelization of this world and the salva- 
tion of men ; but there is more talk than contribution, and 
I do not believe that the prayer of a man for the salvation 
of this world ever amounts to anything unless he by his 
own generosity shows that he is in earnest in the matter. 
I like the style of Elias Van Bendeschatten, the old man 
who came into a meeting of the General Synod of the Re- 
formed Church in 1814, and after there had been a great 
many long and brilliant speeches made about the education 
of young men to the ministry, got up and said he would 
like to speak. The people looked chagrined. They thought 
to themselves: 'He can't speak.' ' Mr. President, I will 
give eight hundred and forty dollars in cash towards that 
object, and thirteen thousand dollars in bonds.' And then 
sat down. While the theory is abroad in many of the 
churches that men give only as they are compelled to give, 
I believe that the people can be educated up to a grand 
and glorious voluntary contribution for the support of the 



LIFE OF REV, T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 103 



Gospel of Jesus: but I cannot make the people believe this 
without your help. Remember the words of Jethro to his 
son-in-law. Come, Let us all rally in this one respect and 
try partly to pay God for our Bibles, for our churches, for 
our families, for our hopes of heaven. If we do not carry 
out this principle, there will come up after awhile a stronger 
generation to execute this commission of Christ, and then 
they will look back and say: 'Ah what a shrivelled-up 
minister and people that must have been in the Brooklyn 
Tabernacle in IS 75 ! When the Lord opened before them 
an opportunity of carrying out a Gospel principle, they had 
not the courage to carry it out.' I do not expect to bother 
this world much after I go out of it, but I must start the 
suspicion that if ever the auctioneer's hammer cracks on 
the back of one of these pews, it will wake me up quicker 
than the prophet Samuel was awakened by the TVitch of 
En dor. 

" Still further: we are here trying to build and organize, 
and keep up a soul-saving church. I mention this last be- 
cause it is first. 'And the first shall be last.' I have by 
argument, and illustration, and caricature in these last six 
years tried to create in your soul an unutterable disgust for 
much of the religion of this day, and to lead you back, so 
far as God gave me strength to do it, to the old religion of 
Jesus Christ and His apostles. I have tried to show you 
that the meanest cant in all the world is the cant of skepti- 
cism, and that you ought to stop apologizing for Chris- 
tianity since it is the duty of those who do not believe in 
Christianity to apologize to you, and that the biggest 
villains in the universe are those who want to rob us of 
that grand old Bible, and that there is one idea in a church 
that ought to swallow up all other ideas, and that is the 
aoul-saving idea, 'But, 5 you say, 'are you not going to 



104 LIFE OF RET. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.B. 



pay any attention to those who have entered into the king- 
dom of God and have really become Christians ? ' My 
theory is, the way to develop a man for this world, and for 
the world to eome, is to throw him chin deep in Christian 
work, and if after a man has been drawn out of the mire 
of his sin on to the 6 Rock of Ages,' he wants to jump back, 
then he will have to jump; I am not going to stand and 
watch him ! I believe the great work of the Christian 
Church is to bring men out of their sin into the hope and 
the joys of Christ's salvation, and then if with all the ad- 
vantages of this century, with open Bible and the constant 
plying of the Holy Ghost, a man cannot grow in grace, he 
is not worth a great deal of culture. We want this a 
church set apart for the one grand object of bringing men 
out of their sin into the hope of the Gospel. There will in 
this coming year be two hundred thousand strangers who 
will be seated within these gates. How many of them will 
you bring to Christ by your prayers and your personal 
solicitations ? "Will you bring a score, or will it be a hun- 
dred or a thousand ? I must tell you that compared with 
this work of saving immortal souls all other work is cold, 
and stale, and insipid. To this one work, God helping me, 
I consecrate the remaining days and years of my life, and I 
ask you to join with me in this crusade for the redemption 
of immortal souls. 

"Xow can it be possible that six years of my pastorate 
have passed away never to return ? How many squandered 
days and years — squandered by you and by me. God for- 
give us for the past and help us to be more faithful for the 
future. Through what a variety of scenes we have gone ! 
I have stood by you in times of sickness and by the graves 
of your dead. When you came back from exhausting sick- 
ness that we feared would be fatal, I praised God that the 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 105 



color came back to your cheek and the spring to your step. 
And some of you in the past six years hav-e passed through 
dire bereavements. How few of the families of my con- 
gregation have not been invaded ! How many of the old 
people have gone in the last two or three years! They 
went away so gently that they had ended the second or 
third stanza in eternal glory before you knew they were 
gone. And, oh, how many of the bright dear children have 
gone! The very darlings of your heart. You tried to hold 
on to them with your stout arms, and you said: ' O Lord, 
spare them. I can't give them up; I can't give them up. 
Let me keep them a little longer. 5 But they broke away 
from your arms into the light of heaven. It seemed as if 
Jesus and the angels determined to have them there and 
then, But we have tried to make this church a comforting 
place for all the broken-hearted. O how many of them 
there are! "We have tried to fill the song, and the sermon, 
and the prayer with the solace of God's promises, and so it 
shall be hereafter. It is no mere theory with me. I have 
had enough trouble of my own to know how to comfort 
those who are desolate, and it is my ambition to be to you 
a son of consolation. Standing as we do at the open por- 
tals of another pastoral year, let us to-day make a new vow 
of consecration. Let us be faithful to God and faithful to 
each other; for soon we must part, and all these pleasant 
scenes in which we have mingled will vanish forever. By 
the throne of God, our work all done, our sorrows all ended, 
may we be permitted to talk over the solemn, delightful, 
and disciplinary occurrences of this my pastoral year in 
Brooklyn." 



CHAPTER VIII, 



MIDNIGHT EXPLORATIONS. 



Dr. Talmage's " midnight explorations" in Brooklyn 
and Xew York, and his discourses describing the tempta- 
tions and vices of city life, as seen by him in the haunts of 
vice, and his scorching exposure of " leprosy in the highest 
places of society," produced the greatest excitement all 
over the country. He states the reasons which led him to 
take this somewhat perilous step, as follows: — "I, as a min- 
ister of religion, felt I had a Divine commission to explore 
the iniquities of our cities. I did not ask counsel of my 
session, or of my presbytery, or of the newspapers, but, 
asking the companionship of three prominent police offi- 
cials and two of the elders of my church, I unrolled my 
commission, and it said: * Son of man, dig into the wall; 
and when I had digged into the wall, behold a door; and 
he said, Go in and see the wicked abominations that are 
tlone here; and I went in, and saw, and beheld! ' Brought 
up in the country and surrounded by much parental care, 
I had not, until this autumn, seen the haunts of ini- 
quity. By the grace of God defended, I had never sowed 
any 'wild oats.' I had somehow been able to tell, from 
various sources, something about the iniquities of the great 
cities, and to preach against them; but I saw, in the de- 
struction of a great multitude of the people, that there 
must be an infatuation and a temptation that had never 
been spoken about, and I said, 'I will explore.' I saw tens 
of thousands of men being ruined, and, if there had been 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 107 



h spiritual percussion answering to the physical percussion, 
the whole air would have been full of the rumble, and roar, 
and crack, and thunder, of the demolition, and this moment, 
if we should pause in our service, we should hear the crash, 
crash! Just as in the sickly season you sometimes hear the 
bell at the gate of the cemetery ringing almost incessantly, 
io I found that the bell at the gate of the cemetery where 
lost souls are buried was tolling by day and tolling by 
night. I said, 6 1 will explore.' I went as a physician goes 
into a sinall-pox hospital, or a fever hospital, to see what 
practical and useful information I might get. That would 
be a foolish doctor who would stand outside the door of an 
invalid writing a Latin prescription. When the lecturer in 
a medical college is done with his lecture he takes the 
students into the dissecting-room, and he shows them the 
reality. I am here this morning to report a plague, and to 
tell you how sin destroys the body, and destroys the mind, 
and destroys the soul. 6 Oh! ' say you, ' are you not afraid 
that, in consequence of your exploration of the iniquities 
of the city, other persons may make exploration, and do 
themselves damage?' I reply: 'If, in company with the 
Commissioner of Police, and the Captain of Police, and 
the Inspector of Police, and the company of two Christian 
gentlemen, and not with the spirit of curiosity, but that 
you may see sin in order the better to combat it, then, in 
the name of the eternal God, go! But, if not, then stay 
away.' Wellington, standing in the battle of Waterloo 
when the bullets were buzzing around his head, saw a 
civilian on the field. He said to him, ' Sir, what are you 
doing here? Be off/ ' Why,' replied the civilian, c there is 
Ho more danger here for me than there is for you.' Then 
Wellington flushed up, and said, 'God and my country de- 
mand that I be here, but you have no errand here.' Xow 



108 LIFE OP REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



I, as an officer in the army of Jesus Christ, went on this 
exploration, and on this battle-field. If you bear a like 
commission, go; if not, stay away. But you say, c Don't 
you think that somehow your description of these places 
will induce people to go and see for themselves?' I 
answer, ' Yes, just as much as the description of the yellow 
fever at Granada would induce people to go down there 
and get the pestilence. It was told us there were hardly 
enough people alive to bury the dead, and I am going 
to tell you a story in these Sabbath morning sermons 
of places where they are all dead or dying. And 
I shall not gild iniquities. I shall play a dirge and 
not an anthem, and while I shall not put faintest blush 
on fairest cheek, I will kindle the cheeks of many a 
man into a conflagration, and I will make his ears tingle. 
But you say, 'Don't you know that the papers are criti- 
cising you for the position you take? I say, Yes; and do 
you know how I feel about it? There is no man who is 
more indebted to the newspaper press than I am. My busi- 
ness is to preach the truth, and the wider the audience the 
newspaper press gives me, the wider my field is. As the 
press of the United States, and the Canadas, and of Eng- 
land, and Ireland, and Scotland, and Australia, and Xew 
Zealand, are giving me every week nearly three million 
souls for an audience, I say I am indebted to the press, any- 
how. Go on! To the day of my death I cannot pay them 
what I owe them. So slash away, gentlemen. The more 
the better. If there is anything I despise it is a dull time. 
Brisk criticism is a coarse Turkish towel, with which every 
public man needs every day to be rubbed down, in order to 
keep healthful circulation. Give my love to all the secular 
and religious editors, and full permission to run their pens 
clear through my sermons 3 from introduction to applica- 
tion," 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 109 

There can be no doubt that the sermons which Dr. Tal- 
mage preached on " The Night Side of City Life," and 
which have been widely circulated, produced not only a deep 
and wide sensation, but also strong opposition and enmity 
to the preacher. It was impossible that such burning ex- 
posures of the sins and sorrows of city life could fail to stir 
up some of the bitterest feelings that human nature is capa- 
ble of. So great was the anxiety of the public to hear those 
germons that the church was thronged beyond description, 
the streets around blockaded with people, so that carriages 
could not pass, Dr. Talmage himself gaining admission 
only by the help of the police. The sermons are marvel- 
lous exhibitions of the preacher's descriptive powers, spark- 
ling with graceful images and illustrative anecdotes, terrible 
in their earnestness, and uncompromising in their denun- 
ciations of sin and wickedness among high and low, sparing 
neither rich nor poor. 

We think it only right that our readers should have the 
opportunity of judging of the character of these sermons, 
and therefore we give the substance of one, entitled " The 
Lepers of High Life." 

" I noticed in my midnight explorations with these high 
officials that the haunts of sin are chiefly supported by men 
of means and wealth. The young men recently come from 
fche country, of whom I spoke last Sabbath morning, are on 
email salary, and they have but little money to spend in 
sin, and if they go into luxuriant iniquity the employer finds 
it out by the inflamed eye and the marks of dissipation, and 
they are discharge! The luxuriant places of iniquity are 
supported by men who come down from the fashionable 
avenues of I\ f ew York, and cross over from some of the 
finest mansions of Brooklyn. Prominent business men 
from Boston, and Philadelphia, and Chicago, anil Cincin- 



110 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



nati patronize these places of sin. I could call the names 
of prominent men in one cluster who patronize these places 
of iniquity, and I may call their names before I get through 
this course of sermons, though the fabric of New York 
and Brooklyn society tumble into wreck. Judges of 
courts, distinguished lawyers, officers of the Church, 
political orators standing on different platforms talking 
about God and good morals until you might suppose them 
to be evangelists expecting a thousand converts in one 
night. Call the roll of dissipation in the haunts of iniquity 
any night, and if the inmates will answer, you will find 
there stockbrokers from TTall street, large importers from 
Broadway, iron merchants, leather merchants, cotton mer- 
chants, hardware merchants, wholesale grocers, representa- 
tives from all the commercial and wealthy classes. Talk 
about the heathenism below Canal street! There is a 
worse heathenism above Canal street. I prefer that kind 
of heathenism which wallows in filth and disgusts the 
beholder rather than that heathenism which covers up its 
walking putrefaction with camel's-hair shawl and point- 
lace, and rides in turn-outs worth three thousand dollars, 
liveried driver ahead and resetted flunky behind. We have 
been talking so much about the Gospel for the masses, now 
let us talk a little about the Gospel for the lepers of society, 
foi' the millionaire sots, for the portable lazzarettos of up- 
per-tendom. It is the iniquity that comes down from the 
higher circles of society that supports the haunts of crime, 
and is gradually turning our cities into Sodorns and Goinor- 
rahs waiting for the fire and brimstone tempest of the lord 
God who whelmed the cities of the plain. We want about 
five hundred Anthony Comstocks to go forth and explore and 
expose the abominations of high life. For eight or ten 
years there stood within sight of the most fashionable Xew 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. Ill 



York drive a Moloch temple, a brown-stone hell on earth, 
which neither the mayor, nor the judges, nor the police 
dared touch, when Anthony Comstock, a Christian man of 
less than average physical stature, and with cheek scarred 
by the knife of a desperado whom he had arrested, walked 
into that palace of the devil on Fifth avenue, and in the 
name of the eternal God put an end to it, the priestess pre- 
siding at the orgies retreating by suicide into the lost world, 
her bleeding corj3se found in her own bath-tub. May the 
eternal God have mercy on our cities. Gilded sin comes 
down from these high places in the upper circles of iniquity, 
and then on gradually down until, in five years, it makes 
the whole course, from the marble pillar on the brilliant 
avenue clear down to the cellars of Water street. One of 
the officers on that midnight exploration said to me, 'Look 
at them now, and look at them three years from now, ^hen 
all this glory has departed ; they'll be a heajD of rags i . the 
station house.' Another of the officers said to me, ' That 
is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Madi- 
son Square.' 

" But I have something more amazing to tell you than that 
the men of means and wealth support these haunts of ini- 
quity, and that is that they are chiefly supported by heads 
of families — fathers and husbands, with the awful perjury 
of broken marriage vows upon them, with a niggardly sti- 
pend left at home for the support of their families, going 
forth with their thousands for the diamonds and ward- 
robe and equipage of iniquity. In the name of Heaven, I 
denounce this public iniquity. Let such men be hurled out 
of decent circles. Let them be hurled out from business 
circles. If they will not repent, overboard with them! I 
lift one-half of the burden of malediction from the un- 
pitied head of offending woman and hurl it on the 



112 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



blasted pate of offending man! Society needs a ne^ 
division of its anathema. By what law of justice does 
burning excoriation pursue offending woman down the 
precipices of destruction, while offending man, kid-gloved, 
walks in refined circles, invited up if he has money, ad- 
vanced into political recognition, while all the doors of 
high life open at the first rap of his gold-headed cane ? I 
say, if you let one come back, let them both come back 
If one must go down, let both go down. I give you as my 
opinion that the eternal perdition of all other sinners will 
be a heaven compared with the punishment everlasting of 
that man who, turning his back upon her whom he swore 
to protect and defend until death, and upon his children, 
whose destiny may be decided by his example, goes forth 
to seek affectional alliances elsewhere. For such a man the 
porti n will be fire, and hail, and tempest, and darkness, 
and i aguish, and despair forever, forever, forever! My 
friends, there has got to be a reform in this matter or 
American society will go to pieces. Under the head of 
' incompatibility of temper,' nine-tenths of the abomination 
goes on. What did you get married for if your disposi- 
tions are incompatible? 'Oh!' you say, ' I rushed into it 
without thought.' Then you ought to be willing to suffer 
the punishment for making a fool of yourself! Incompati- 
bility of temper! You are responsible for at least a half 
of the incompatibility. Why are you not honest and will- 
ing to admit either that you did not control your temper, 
or that you had already broken your marriage oath ? In 
nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of the thousand, 
incompatibility is a phrase to cover up wickedness already 
enacted. I declare in the presence of the world that heads 
of families are supporting these haunts of iniquity. I wish 
there might be a police raid lasting a great while^ that they 



LIFE OP REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 113 



would just go down through all these places of sin and 
gather up all the prominent business men of the city, s*fid 
march them down through the street followed by about 
twenty reporters to take their names and put them in full 
capitals in the next day's paper! Let such a course be 
undertaken in our cities, and in six months there WOiiM be 
eighty per cent off your public vice. It is not now the 
young men that need so much looking after; it is their 
fathers and mothers. Let heads of families cease to patron 
ize places of iniquity, and in a short time they would 
crumble to ruin." 

We request the attention of our readers to the following 
extract from an American journal published at the time the 
sermons were being delivered: 

" The religious and secular newspapers, with great una- 
nimity, ridicule and condemn Dr. Talmage's lectures on the 
haunts of sin in New 7 York. To this the doctor made re- 
ply in his last sermon, and spoke of the 6 sublime fury 
with which the clergymen mount their war-horses and 
charge down upon century-old sins or sinners. They hurl 
sulphur at Sodom, and fire at Gomorrah, but when they 
come to handle modern sins, they take out dainty handker- 
chiefs, wipe gold-rimmed spectacles, and put kid gloves on 
their hands.' Now we should like to know what objections 
our religious contemporaries have to the preachers course 
in investigating the facts, verifying Solomon's assertion 
that such paths take hold on hell, and most earnestly warn- 
ing the unwary against them. We would not advise 
another exploration of the gilded hells, but let the minister 
ask his medical friend to show him the end of such paths, 
in the hospitals and asylums, slurris and cellars, and, our 
word for it, it will touch his tongue with a live coal of zeal. 
He will try to save young men as he never beforetried," 



CHAPTER IX. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SERMON, OR HOW MINISTERS ARE LIED 

ABOUT. 

[Our readers will see by this sermon something of what Dr. Tal- 
mage has had to contend with in the course of his remarkable career 
as a Christian minister, and it will also help to prepare for a more 
righteous judgment upon the merits of the Trial which has just 
taken place, and of which an account is given farther on. — Ed.] 

" You may not know that this is a double anniversary. 
It is nearly ten years since I became pastor of this church. 
Besides, on Tuesday, January 7, of this year (1879) I was 
forty-seven years of age. This being a double anniversary, 
you will not be surprised if my sermon this morning is 
autobiographical. I started life in an old-fashioned Chris- 
tian family, where they had prayers morning and night, 
and always asked a blessing on meals; and there was no 
exception to the rule, for, if my father was sick or away, 
my mother led, and while sometimes, when my father led, 
we found it hard to repress childish restlessness, there was 
something in the tones of my mother, and there was some- 
thing in the tears which always choked her utterance before 
she got through with the prayer, that was irresistible. The 
fact is that mothers get their hearts so wound around their 
children that when they think of their future, and the trials 
and temptations to which they may be subjected, they can- 
not control their emotions as easily as men do. While he 
had a very sympathetic nature, I never saw my father cry 
but once, and that was when they put the lid over my 



LIFE OF RET. T. DE WITT lALMAGE, D.fi. 115 



mother. Her hair was white as the snow, and her face was 
very much wrinkled, for she had worked very hard for us 
all, and had had many sicknesses and bereavements. I do 
not know how she appeared to the world, nor what artists 
may have thought of her features, but to us she was per- 
fectly beautiful. There were twelve of us children, but 
six of them are in heaven. I started for the legal profes- 
sion with an admiration for it which was never cooled, for 
I cannot now walk along by a court-house, or hear an attor- 
ney address a jury without having all my pulses accelerated 
and my enthusiasm arroused. I cannot express my admi- 
ration for a profession adorned with the names of Marshall, 
and Story, and Kent, and Rufus Choate, and John McLean. 
But God converted my soul, and put me into the ministry 
by a variety of circumstances, shutting me up to that 
glorious profession. And what a work it is! I thank God 
every day for the honor of being associated with what I 
consider the most elevated, educated, refined, and conse- 
crated band of men on this planet — the Christian ministry. 
I know, I think, about five thousand of them personally, 
and they are as near perfection as human nature ever gets 
to be. Some of them on starvation salaries, and with worn 
health, and amid ten thousand disadvantages, trying to 
bring comfort and pardon to the race. I am proud to have 
my name on the roll with them, though my name be at the 
very bottom, and am willing to be their servant for J esus' 
sake. But we all have work. ' To every man his work. 5 
I will not hide the fact that it has been the chief ambition 
of my ministry to apply a religion six thousand years old 
to the present day — a religion of four thousand years B. C. 
to 1869 and 1870 A. D. So I went to work to find the old- 
est religion I could see, I sought for it in my Bible, and I 
found it in the Garden of Eden, where the serpent's bead 



116 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D, 



is promised a bruising by the heel of Christ. I said, ' That 
is the religion,' and I went to work to see what kind of 
men that religion made, and I found Joshua, and Moses, 
and Paul, and John the Evangelist, and John Banyan, and 
John Wesley, and John Summerfield, and live hundred 
other Johns as good or approximate. I said: £ Ah! that is 
the religion I want to preach — the Edenic religion that 
bruises the serpent's head.' That is what I have been try- 
ing to do. The serpent's head must be bruised. I hate 
him. I never see his head but I throw something at it. 
That is what I have been trying to do during these courses 
of sermons, tc bruise the serpent's head, and every time I 
bruised him he hissed, and the harder I bruised him the 
harder he hissed. You never trod on a serpent but he 
hissed. But I trod on him with only one foot. Before 
I o*et through I shall tread on him with both feet. 
If God will help me I shall bruise the oppres- 
sion, and the fraud, and the impurity coiled up amid our 
great cities. Come now, God helping me, I declare a war 
of twenty-five years against iniquity and for Christ, if God 
will let me live so long. To this conflict I bring every 
muscle of my body, every faculty of ray mind, every pas- 
sion of my soul. Between here and my grave there shall 
not be an inch of retreat, of indifference, or of compro- 
mise. After I am dead, I ask of the world and of the 
church only one thing — not for a marble slab, not for a 
draped chair, not for a long funeral procession, not for a 
flattering ovation. A plain box in a plain wagon will be 
enough, if the elders of the church will stand here and say 
that I never compromised with evil, and always presented 
Christ to the people. Then let Father Pearson, if he be 
still alive, pronounce the benediction, and the mourners go 
tome. I do not forget that my style of preaching and my 



LIFE OF REV. 1. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 117 



work in general have beeiv sometimes severely criticised by 
some of my clerical brethren. It has come to be under* 
stood that at installations and at dedications I shall b* 
assailed. I have sometimes said to prominent men in my 
church, ' Go down to such and such an installation, and 
hear them excoriate Talmage.' And they go, and they arQ 
always gratified! I have heard that sometimes in Brooklyn, 
when an audience gets dull through lack of. ventilation in 
the church, the pastor w411 look over towards Brooklyn 
Tabernacle, and say something that will wake all the people 
up, and they will elbow each other, and say, 'That's Tal- 
mage!' You see, there are some ministers who want me 
to work just the way they do; and, as I cannot see my 
duty in their direction, they sometimes call me all sorts of 
names. Some of them call me one thing, and some call 
me another; but I think the three words that are most 
glibly used in this connection are ' mountebank,' 6 sensation- 
alism,' ' buffoonery,' and a variety of phrases showing that 
some of my dear clerical brethren are not happy. Now, I 
have the advantage of all such critical brethren in the fact 
that I never assault them though they assault me. The 
dear souls! I wish them all the good I can think of — large 
audiences, large salaries, and houses full of children, and 
heaven to boot! I rub my hands all over their heads in 
benediction. You never heard me say one word against 
any Christian worker, and you never will. The fact is, 
that I am so busy in assaulting the powers of darkness 
that I have no time to stop and stab any of my own regi- 
ment in the back. Now, there are two ways in which 
I might answer some of the critical clergy. I might 
answer them by the same bitterness and acrimony and 
caricature with which some of them have assaulted me; 
but would that advance our holy religion? Do you 



118 LIFE OF REV, T, DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



not know that there is nothing that so prejudices people 
against Christianity as to see ministers fighting? It 
takes two to make a battle, so I will let them go 
on. It relieves them, and does not hurt me! I suppose 
that in the war of words I might jJbe their equa], for 
nobody has ever charged me with lack of vocabulary! 
But then, you plainly see that if I assaulted them with 
the same bitterness with which they assaulted me, no 
good cause would be advanced. There is another way, and 
that is by giving them kindly, loving, and brotherly advice. 
'Ah!* you say, 'that's the way; that's a Christian way.' 
Then I advise my critical brethren of the clergy to remem- 
ber what every layman knows, whether in the church or 
in the world, that you never build yourself up by trying to 
pull anybody else down. You see, my dear critical breth- 
ren — and I hope the audience will make no response to 
what I am saying — you see, my dear critical brethren, you 
fail in two respects when you try to do that. First, you 
do not build yourselves up; and secondly, you do not pull 
anybody else down. Show me the case in five hundred 
years where any pulpit, or any church, has been built up by 
bombarding some other pulpit. The fact is, we have an 
immense membership in this church, and they are all my 
personal friends. Then, we have a great many regular at- 
tendants who are not church members, and a great many 
occasional attendants, from all parts of the land, and those 
people know that I never give any bad advice in this place, 
and that I always give good advice, and that God by con- 
version saves as many souls in this church every year as 
He saves in any other church. Now, my dear critical breth- 
ren of the clergy, why assault all these homes throughout the 
world ? When you assault me, you assault them. Besides 
that. ° To every man his work.' I wish you alJ prosperity, 



LIFE OF REV, T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 119 



critical brethren. You, for instance, are metaphysical. 
May you succeed in driving people into heaven by raising 
a great fog on earth. You are severely logical. Hook the 
people into glory by the horns of a dilemma. You are an- 
ecdotal. Charm the people to truth by capital stories well 
told, You are illustrative. Twist all the flowers of the 
field and all the stars of heaven into your sermons. You 
are classical. Wield the club of Hercules for the truth, and 
make Parnassus bow to Calvary. Your work is not so 
much in the pulpit as from house to house, by pastoral vis- 
itation. The Lord go with you as you go to take tea with 
the old ladies, and hold the children in your lap"~and tell 
them how much they look like their father and mother ! Stay 
all the afternoon and evening, and if it is a damp night, stay 
all night! All prosperity to you in this pastoral work, and 
may you by that means get the whole family into the king- 
dom of God. You will reach people I never will reach, 
and I will reach people you never will reach. Go ahead* 
In every possible way, my dear critical brethren of the 
clergy, I will help you. If you have anything going on in 
your church — lecture, concert, religious meeting — send me 
the notice and I will read it here with complimentary re- 
marks, and when you call me a hard name I will call you 
a blessed fellow, and when you throw a brickbat at me — 
an ecclesiastical brickbat — then I will pour holy oil on your 
head until it runs down on your coat collar! There is nothing 
so invigorates and inspires me as the opportunity to say 
pleasant things about my clerical brethren. God prosper you, 
my critical brethren of the ministry, and put a blessing on 
your head, and a blessing in your shoe, and a blessing in 
your gown — if you wear one — and a blessing before you, 
and a blessing behind you, and a blessing under you, and a 
blessing on the top of you, so that you cannot get out untiJ 



120 LIFE OF REV. T, DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



you mount into heaven, where I appoint a meeting with 
you on the north side of the river, under the tree of life, to 
talk over the honor we had on earth of working each one 
in his own way. 6 To every man his work.' TTe ought to 
be an example, my critical brethren, to other occupations. 
How often we hear lawvers talking against lawyers, and 
doctors talking against doctors, and merchants talking 
against merchants. You would hardly go into a store on 
one side of the street to get a merchant's opinion of a mer- 
chant on the other side of the street in the same line of 
business. ^Ve ought, in the ministry, to be examples to 
all other occupations. If we have spites and jealousies, let 
us hide them forever. If we have not enough divine grace 
to do it, let common worldly prudence dictate. 

"But during these ten years in which I have preached to 
you, I have not only received the criticism of the world, 
but I have often received its misrepresentation, and I do 
not suppose any man of any age escapes if he be trying to 
do a particular work for God and the Church. It was said 
that Rowland Hill advertised he would on the following 
Sabbath make a pair of shoes in his pulpit, in the presence 
of his audience, and that he came into the pulpit with a 
pair of boots and a knife, and having shaved off the top of 
the boots, presented a pair of shoes. It was said that 
Whitefield was preaching one summer day, when a fly 
buzzed around his head, and that he said, c The sinner will 
be destroyed as certainly as I catch that fly. 5 He clutched 
at the fly and missed it. The story goes that then he said 
that after all perhaps the sinner might escape through sal- 
vation ! Twenty years ago the pictorials of London were 
full of pictures of Charles Spurgeon astride the rail of a 
pulpit, riding down in the presence of the audience to show 
how easy it was to go into sin; and then the pictorials 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D D. 121 



represented him as climbing up the railing of the pulpit to 
show how hard it was to get to heaven. Mr. Beecher was 
said to have entered his pulpit one warm day, and, wiping 
the perspiration from his forehead, to have said, 'It's hot ! 7 
with an expletive more emphatic than devotional ! Lies ! 
Lies ! All of them lies. Xo minister of the Gospel 
escapes. Certainly I have not escaped ! A few years ago, 
when I was living in Philadelphia, I came to unite in holy 
marriage Dr. Boynton, the eloquent geological lecturer, 
with a lady of Xew York. I solemnized the marriage 
ceremony in the parlors of the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The 
couple made their wedding excursion in a balloon that 
left Central Park within the presence of five thousand 
people. When I got back to Philadelphia I saw in the 
papers .that I had disgraced the holy ordinance of mar- 
riage by performing it a mile high, above the earth, in a 
balloon ! And there are thousands of people to this 
day who believe that I solemnized that marriage above 
the clouds. About eight or nine years ago, in our chapel, 
at a Christmas festival one week night, amid six or eight 
hundred children roaring happy, with candies and oranges 
and corn-balls, and with the representation of a star in 
Christmas-greens right before me, I said, 6 Boys, I feel like 
a morning-star.' It so happened that that phrase is to be 
found in a negro song, and two days afterward it appeared 
over the name of a man who said he was 6 a member of a 
neighboring church;' that I had the previous Sunday night, 
in my pulpit, quoted two or three verses from 'Shoo Fly!' 
And, moreover, it went on to say that we sang that every 
Sunday in our Sunday school! And as it was supposed 
that 6 a member of a neighboring church ' would not lie, 
grave editorials appeared in prominent newspapers deplor- 
ing the fact that the pulpit should be so desecrated, and 



122 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



that the Sabbath schools of this country seemed to be going 
to ruin. Some years ago, in the New York 6 Independent,' 
I wrote an article denouncing the exclusiveness of churches, 
and making a plea for the working classes. In the midst 
of that article there were two ironical sentences, in which 
I expressed the disgust which some people have for anybody 
that works for a living. Some enemy took these two ironi- 
cal sentences and sent them all around the world as my sen- 
timents of disgust with the working classes, and a popular 
magazine of the country, taking these two ironical sentences 
as a text, went on to say that I preached every Sunday with 
kid gloves and swallow-tail coat (!), and that I ought to re- 
member that if ever I got to heaven I should have to be 
associated with the working classes, and be with the fisher- 
men apostles, and Paul, the tent-maker. To this very day 
I get letters from all parts of the earth, containing little 
newspaper scraps, saying; ' Did you really say th^t? How 
is it possible you can so hate the working classes? How 
can you make that accord with the words of sympathy you 
have recently been uttering in behalf of their sorrows?' A 
few years ago I preached a series of sermons here on good 
and bad amusements. There appeared a sermon as mine 
denouncing all amusements, representing that all actors, 
play-actors and actresses were dissolute without exception, 
and that all theatrical places were indecent, and that every 
man who went to a theatre lost his soul, and that it was 
wrong even to go to a zoological garden, and a sin to look 
at a zebra. I never preached one word of the sermon 
Every word of that sermon was written in a printing-office 
by a man who had never seen me, or seen Brooklyn Taber* 
nacle — every word of it except the text; that \ie got hj 
sending to another printing-office. In the State of Maini 
a religious paper hag a letter from a clergyman, who say 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 123 



that I came into this pulpit on Sabbath morning with Indian 
dress, feathers on my head, and scalping-knife in my hand, 
and that the pulpit was appropriately adorned with 
arrows, and Indian blankets, and buffalo-skins; and 
the clergyman in that letter goes on, with tears, to 
ask, 'What is the world coming to?' and asks if eccle- 
siastical authority somehow cannot be evoked to 
stop such an outrage. Why do I state these things ? To 
stop them? Oh, no. But for public information. Ida 
not want to stop them. They make things spicy ! Be 
sides that, my enemies do more for me than my friends can. 
I long ago learned to harness the falsehood and abuse of 
the world for Christian service. I thought it would be a 
great privilege if I could preach the gospel through the 
secular press beyond these two cities. The secular press of 
these two cities, as a matter of good neighborhood and of 
home news, have more than done me justice; and I thank 
them for it. If they put the Gospel as I preach it in their 
renortorial columns, I should be very mean and ungrateful 
if I objected to anything in the editorial columns. I have 
felt if this world is ever brought to God, it will be by Jie 
printing press; and while I have for many years been allowed 
the privilege of preaching the Gospel through the religious 
press all around the world, I wanted to preach the Gospel 
through the secular press beyond these cities, to people who 
do not go to church and who dislike churches. My enemies 
have given me the chance. They have told such mon- 
strous lies about this pulpit and about this church that they 
have made all the world curious to know what really is said 
here. They have opened the way before me everywhere in 
all the cities of this land, so that now the very best, 
the most conscientious, and the most leading papers 
of the country allow me, week by week, to preach 



124: LIFE OP RET. T, DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



repentance and Christ to the people. And first of all, now t 
I thank the secular press of these two cities for their kind- 
ness, and after that I publicly thank — for I shall never have 
any opportunity of doing so save this — the Boston £ Her- 
ald,' the Cincinnati 'Enquirer,' the Philadelphia ' Press/ 
the ' Times' of Philadelphia, the Albany ' Argus,' the 
6 Inter-Ocean' of Chicago, the ' Advance' of Chicago, the 
i Courier-Journal' of Louisville, the ' Times-Journal' of 
St. Louis, the ' Dispatch,' of Pittsburg, the Reading Eagle,' 
Pennsylvania; the Henrietta ' Journal' of Texas, the 'Evan- 
gel' of San Francisco, the 'Telegraph' of St. John, 
Canada, the ' Guardian ' of Toronto, Canada, the 
'Christian Age,' the 'Christian Herald,' and the 'Chris- 
tian Globe,' of London, the 'Southern Cross' of Melbourne, 
Australia, 'Town and Country' of Sidney, Australia; the 
' Words of Grace' of Sydney, Australia, and many others^ 
all around the world. And I want to tell you that when I 
was called here to this place, while I received the call from 
nineteen people, my enemies now give me the opportunity 
every week of preaching the Gospel to between seven and 
eight million souls. They have excited the curiosity to see 
and hear what I would say, and then the leading, the hon- 
orable newspapers of the country have gratified that curios- 
ity. Go on, mine enemies ! If you can afford it in your 
soul I can. So God makes the wrath of men to praise Him, 
and while I thank my friends I thank my enemies. 

" But, while the falsehoods to which I have referred may 
somewhat have stirred your humor, there is a falsehood 
which strikes a different key, for it invades the sanctity 
of my home; and, when I tell the story, the fair-minded 
men and women and children of the land will be indignant. 
I will read it, so that if any one may want to copy it they 
can after, (Reading from manuscript). It has been stated 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, 125 



over and over again in private circles, and in newspapers 
hinted, until tens of thousands of people have heard the 
report, that sixteen or seventeen years ago I "went sailing 
on the Schuylkill River with my wife and her sister (who 
was my sister-in-law) ; that the boat capsized, and that 
having the opportunity of saving either my wife or her 
sister, I let my wife drown and saved her sister, I marrying 
her in sixty days! I propose to nail that infamous lie on 
the forehead of every villain, man or woman, who shall 
utter it again, and to invoke the law to help me. One 
beautiful morning, my own sister by blood relation, Sarah 
Talmage Whiteknack, and her daughter, Mary, being on a 
visit to us in Philadelphia, I proposed that we go to Fair- 
mount Park and make it pleasant for them. With my wife 
and my only daughter — she being a little child — and my 
sister, Sarah, and her daughter, I started for Fairmount. 
Having just moved to Philadelphia I was ignorant of the 
topography of the suburbs. Passing along by the river I 
saw a boat and proposed a row. I hired the boat and we 
got in, and not knowing anything of the dam across the 
river, and unwarned by the keeper of the boat of any 
danger, I pulled straight for the brink, suspecting nothing 
until we saw some one wildly waving on the shore as 
though there were danger. I looked back, and lo! we were 
already in the current of the dam. With a terror that you 
cannot imagine I tried to back the boat, but in vain. We 
went over. The boat capsized. My wife instantly disap- 
peared and was drawn under the dam, from which her body 
was not brought until days after; I, not able to swim a 
stroke, hanging on the bottom of the boat, my niece hang- 
ing on to me, my sister, Sarah, clinging to the other side of 
the boat. A boat from shore rescued us. After an hour of 
effort to resuscitate my child, who was nine-tenths dead— 



126 LIFE OF REV. T- DE WITT TALMAGE, B.D. 



and I can see lier biacivened body yet, rolling over the 
barrel, such as is used for restoring the drowned — she 
breathed again. A carriage came up, and leaving my wife 
in the bottom of the Schuylkill River, and with my little 
girl in semi-unconsciousness, and blood issuing from her 
nostril and lip, wrapped in a shawl on my lap, and with my 
sister, Sarah, and her child in the carriage, we rode to our 
desolate home. Since the world was created a more ghastly 
and agonizing calamity never happened. And that is the 
scene over which some ministers of the Gospel, and men 
and women pretending to be decent, have made sport. My 
present wife was not within a hundred miles of the place. 
So far from being sisters, the two were entire strangers. 
They never heard of each other, and not until nine 
months after that tragedy on the Schuylkill did I even 
know of the existence of my present wife. Nine 
months after that calamity on the Schuylkill, she was in- 
troduced to me by my brother, her pastor, Rev. Goyn 
Talmage, now of Port Jervis, Xew York. My first wife's 
name was Mary R. Avery, a member of the Reformed 
Church, Harrison street, South Brooklyn, where there are 
many hundreds of people who could tell the story. My 
present wife, I say, was not within a hundred miles of the 
spot. Her name was Susie Whittemorc, and she was a 
member of the Reformed Church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, 
where multitud< s could tell the story. With multitudes of 
people on the bank of the Schuylkill who witnessed my 
landing on that awful day of calamity, and hundreds of 
people within half an hour's walk of this place who knew 
Mary Avery, and hundreds of people in Greenpoint, Brook- 
lyn, who knew my present wife, Susie Whittemore — what 
do you think, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, 
editors and reporters, of a lie like that manufactured out of 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE YVTTT TALMAGE, D.D. 127 



tke whole cloth? I never have spoken of this subject be- 
fore, and I never shall again; but I give fair notice that, if 
any two responsible witnesses will give me the name of any 
responsible person after this affirming this slander, I will 
pay the informant one hundred dollars, and I will put upon 
the criminal, the loathsome wretch who utters it, the full 
force of the law. 

" But while I have thus referred to falsehoods and criti- 
cisms, I want to tell you that in the upturned faces of my 
congregation, and in the sympathy of a church always in- 
dulgent, and in the perpetual blessing of God, my ten 
years' experience in Brooklyn have been very happy. Now, 
as to the future — for I am preaching my anniversary ser- 
mon — as to the future, I want to be of more service. My 
ideas of a sermon have all changed. My entire theology 
has condensed into one word, and that a word of four let- 
ters, and that word is 'help. 5 Before I select my text, 
when I come to this pulpit, when I rise to j>reach, the one 
thought is, How shall I help the people? And this coming 
year I mean, if God will give me His Spirit, to help young 
men. They have an awful struggle, and I want to put my 
arm through their arm with a tight grip, such as an older 
brother has the right to give to a younger brother, and I 
want to help them through. Many of them have magnifi- 
cent promise and hope, I am going to cheer them on up 
the steps of usefulness and honor. God help the young 
men! I get letters every week from somebody in the coun- 
try, saying, c My son has gone to the city; he is in such a 
bank, or store, or shop. Will you look after him? He was 
a good boy at home but there are many temptations in the 
city. Pray for him, and counsel him.' I want to help the 
old. They begin to feel in the way; they begin to feel 
neglected, perhaps, I want at the edge of the snow-bank 



128 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



of old age to show them the crocus. I want to put in theii 
hands the staff and the rod of the Gospel. God bless your 
gray hairs. I want to help these wives and mothers in the 
struggle of housekeeping, and the training of their children 
for God and for Heaven. I want to preach a Gospel as ap- 
propriate to Martha as to Mary. God help the martyrs of the 
kitchen, and the martyrs of the drawing-room, and the mar- * 
tyrs of the nursery, and the martyrs of the sewing-machine. 
I want to help merchants; whether the times are gcod or 
bad, they have a struggle. I want to preach a sermon 
that will last them all the week; when they have notes to 
pay, and no money to pay them with; when they are abused 
and assaulted. I want to give them a Gospel as appro- 
priate for Wall street, and Broadway, and Chestnut street, 
and State street, as for the communion table. I want to 
help dissipated men who are trying to reform. Instead of 
coming to them with a patronizing air that seems to say, 
'How high I am up, and how low you are down,' I want to 
come to them with a manner which seems to say, ' If I had 
been in the same kind of temptation, I might have done 
worse.' I have more interest in the lost sheep that bleats 
on the mountain than in the ninety-nine sheep asleep in 
the fold. I want to help the bereft. Oh! they are all 
around us. It seems as if the cry of orphanage and child- 
lessness and widowhood would never end. Only last 
Wednesday we carried out a beautiful girl of twenty years. 
Fond parents could not cure her. Doctors could not cure 
her. Oceanic voyage to Europe could not cure her. She 
went out over that road over which so many of your loved 
ones have gone. Oh! we want comfort. This is a world 
of graves. God make me the sun of consolation to the 
troubled. Help for one. Help for all. Help now. While 
this moment the sun rides mid heaven, may the eternal 
noon of God's pardon and comfort flood your soul." 



CHAPTER X, 



THE TRIAL. 



We now come to what we doubt not is the most painful 
event in Dr. Talmage's life. To be the subject of gossip 
and tittle-tattle, to have one's sayings and doings criticised 
and sometimes misrepresented, is the lot of all public men; 
but, we regret to say, Dr. Talmage has been called to pass 
through a much severer trial than any that could have arisen 
from such causes as these. We will not attribute unworthy 
motives to those who have been the chief actors in this 
movement directed against Dr. Talmage, we will hope that 
they believe they were discharging a great public duty in 
the course which they have been pursuing. Indeed, we feel 
assured that neither party can look back upon the scenes 
which were reported as taking place during the trial, without 
deep sorrow for the scandal brought upon the Christian min- 
istry and the Christian name itself. A private conference 
of the brethren with Dr. Talmage would have been enough 
to answer every purpose, when the " common fame " charges 
against Talmage might have been inquired into, and a 
right decision arrived at in the interests of truth and 
charity. But unhappily this was not done, and the world 
now rings with the Brooklyn Presbytery Scandal. From 
the first of this painful matter it has seemed to us that to 
proceed against a Christian minister merely on the ground 
of " common fame " was unworthy a body of men such as 
the Brooklyn Presbytery. Was there ever a zealous serv- 
ant of God, since the world began, that " common fame" 



130 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



has not more or less calumniated ? Has it not been the lot 
of God's servants in all ages to be reviled and slandered by 
" common fame ? " Yea, was it not thus that the life of 
the Master Himself was taken away ? The " common 
fame " of the Scribes and Pharisees, the priests and the 
rulers of Jerusalem, alleged that Jesus was " a wine-bibber 
and a friend of publicans and sinners;" that He had "a 
devil and was mad;" that He said He would destroy the 
temple; that He was seditious, and stirred up the people to 
rebellion against Cgesar; that He was a blasphemer, &c. 
It -was upon " common fame " that He was apprehended 
and crucified. We candidly confess that the manner in 
which the prosecuting party proceeded against. Talmage 
has never ceased to appear to us as cowardly and mean; 
that under the assumption of " common fame " was com 
cealed a dislike to the man, and a desire to strike him down, 
which dared not show itself in a fair and honest and. manly 
encounter. We say this without any reference whatever 
to the merits of the case, and without the slightest wish to 
create prejudice. The Brooklyn Presbytery has decided 
by a majority of five that Talmage is innocent of the 
charges made against him, and the same majority have 
passed a resolution expressing confidence in his character, 
and esteem and regard for him and his work; and so far 
these are weighty testimonies in his favor, which ought at 
the least to procure for him such treatment as an acquitted 
man deserves; but the case is not thereby terminated. The 
minority in the Presbytery have appealed to the higher 
court in the Presbyterian Church, the Synod, and in conse- 
quence of that appeal the whole case must be gone into 
again before the larger court; and therefore respect for that 
court as well as for Talmage himself precludes our saying 
more at present. It is evident from Talmage's declaration 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMA GE, D.D. 131 



before the Presbytery that he was not unprepared for hos- 
tile action. He said, " We have been ready for trial for 
nine years in the Brooklyn Tabernacle. The air has been 
full of the threats of the Presbytery towards us. We have 
been committed and committed, and not to be ready for 
trial at this time would be a very strange thing. One 
month ago I stood up here and demanded investigation and 
trial. I said, C I am here now prepared to answer any and 
every question put to me, and I want an investigation. An 
investigation for forty-seven years.' But I was not 
heard. I want an investigation — not for one year, but 
for forty-seven years. All the facts concerning my life 
— between God and my soul there are ten thousand sins 
and imperfections — but between myself and my church, and 
between myself and my brethren, I challenge investigation. 
I waive the ten days which I have aright to demand to pre- 
pare for trial. I am ready now, with the documents in my 
pocket, and with witnesses here to prove that atrocious 
crimes have been committed against me as a minister of the 
Lord Jesus Christ." These do not read like the words of a 
man who had anything to conceal or fear. The charge 
against Dr. Talmage consisted of the following specifica- 
tions: 

Specification I. — In that he acted deceitfully, and made 
statements which he knew to be false, in the matter of his 
withdrawal from the editorship of the " Christian at Work," 
in the month of October, 1876. 

Specification II — In that, at various times, he published, 
or allowed to be published by those closely associated with 
him, without contradicting them, statements which he 
knew to be false, or calculated to give a false impression, 
in defense of his action and statements referred to in the 
first specification. 



132 LIFE OF BEY. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



Specification III.— In that he repeatedly made public 
declarations, in various and emphatic forms of speech, from 
his pulpit, that the church of which he was pastor was a 
free church, and that the sittings were assigned without 
reference to' the dollar question, although he knew such de- 
clarations to be false. 

Specification IV— In that, in the winter of 1876-7, he 
falsely accused J. W. Hathaway of dishonest practices, and 
afterwards denied that he had done so. 

Specification V. — In that, in the early part of the year 
1878, he endeavored to obtain false subscriptions towards 
the payment of the debt of the church, to be deceitfully 
used for the purpose of inducing others to subscribe. 

Specification VI — In that, in the year 1878, he acted 
and spoke deceitfully in reference to the matter of the re- 
engagement of the organist of the Tabernacle Presbyterian 
Church. 

Specification VII. — In that he publicly declared, on Sun- 
day, February 2, 1879, that all the newspapers said he was 
to be arraigned for heterodoxy, and used other expressions 
calculated to give the impression that he expected to be 
arraigned on that charge, although he knew that he would 
be arraigned, if at all, on the charge of falsehood, thereby 
deceiving the people. 

The prosecution was conducted by the Rev. ArthuJ* 
Crosby and Rev. Archibald McCullough. The defense was 
committed to the Rev. Dr. Spear, a venerable minister of 
the new school, who certainly had not been prejudiced in 
Talmage's favor. Dr. Spear said: 

"I have heard of him and talked about him, and said- 
some things adverse to him which, if I had known him 
as well as I now do, I would not have said. I find 
that I was mistaken in some very important respects 



LIFE OF EEV. T\ DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 133 



He is not in all particulars the man that I supposed 
he was, and not the man that the common 
fame I heard said he was. I took him to be odd, 
strange, startling and sensational by design, study and art; 
but I now see, as I did not then see, that Nature has given 
him such forms of thought and modes of expression as 
must carry along with them much of what very sober 
people call indiscretion and imprudence. I looked upon 
him as a man whom it would be well to chisel, and 
straighten, and put into a more comely shape; but I did 
not then see, as I do now, that he has an emotional and 
intellectual organization remarkably unique; his own, and 
not another's, and that he cannot be trimmed, cramped or 
frozen without undermining the foundation of his great 
powers. I did not then see, as I do now, that he is and 
must be himself, however much the critics may snarl at 
him; and that when and where he is himself there is in him 
an immense amount of that which is good and strong. I 
regarded him as a genius of his own type; but I did not see 
the peculiarities and infirmities, just as natural as the 
genius, which sometimes shade the clear luster of the lat- 
ter. I did not see, as I now do, the fervor and rush of his 
emotional nature that necessarily involve some imprudence, 
that will not permit the tongue to measure its own words 
with the most perfect exactitude, and that will not wait for 
the cool and careful analysis of deliberate judgment. He 
is one of those men who often make the air tremble with 
vibrations too rapid for their own counting. And as to his 
heart, I was greatly mistaken. I did not then see, as I now 
do, its natural simplicity, its generous overflow, its unsus- 
pecting artlessness, and, unless I am now mistaken, its 
honest zeal for God and man. My affections have been 
drawn towards him in this hour of his trouble, and this is 
the reason why I am before you to plead his cause." 



13-i LIFE OF REV, T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



Subsequently the sixth and seventh specifications were 
withdrawn. The trial lasted six weeks and attracted gen- 
eral attention and much comment, not only because of the 
eminence of the accused minister and the nature of the 
charges preferred against him, but on account of the man- 
ner in which the whole affair was conducted. It ended, as 
we have already stated, in a verdict of acquittal by a 
majority of five. At the close of the trial Dr. Talmage 
delivered the following address: 

"Me. Moderator— • I think myself happy because I 
shall be permitted to answer for myself this day before 
thee, touching all the things whereof I have been accused, 
because I know thee to be expert in all customs and ques- 
tions.' Conscious as I have been of my thorough integrity, 
I am glad that the Presbytery have come to the same mind. 
You will all, as Christian brethren, want to' know how I 
feel now. First, a sense of gratitude." (Here Dr. Talmage 
extended thanks to the Moderator, to his counsel and to 
the press). 

'•'How do I feel towards my severe opponents in this 
Presbytery ? I feel well. I would, if need be, go any 
distance to serve them. By the blessing of God I shall 
come out of this trial without the slightest grudge. I 
feel that these opponents have done me no harm. They 
have opened for me wider fields of usefulness. They have 
marshaled all Christian people and the world on my side. 
Whatever they meant God has turned it for good. Every 
blow struck has somehow passed my head and knocked 
open a new door of work. How do I feel towards Brothers 
Van Dyke and Crosby and Greene and Dr. Sherwood ? I 
feel as though I would like to meet them all in heaven, 
although I am not very anxious to meet them the first two 
or three days ! It is only through the help of God that I 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 135 



have not lost my temper. I have had no surprise in the 
final vote. Three newspaper gentlemen, before one word 
of evidence was taken on this trial, gave me the names of 
those who would finally yote against me, and they made 
but one mistake, and that in the ease of a clergyman who 
came to my side. My only surprise was that after raking 
over my entire life of forty-seven years they have been able 
to establish nothing against me. I am not as good as that 
would seem to make me out. I could have given my prose- 
cutors material for fifty specifications against myself, to 
all of which I would have pleaded guilty. I shall go out 
of this trial with an increased hatred for everything like 
sectarianism. 

"Not only have I had the sympathy of the entire Presby- 
terian Church — a handful of this Presbytery excepted — but 
I have had the sympathy of the Methodist, the Baptist, the 
Congregational, the Reformed, the Episcopalian, and the 
Catholic Churches. I never had any sectarianism in my 
soul, but I have less now. Indeed, though I am a Protest- 
ant, in one respect I prefer the Catholic Church. They 
have only one pope, while in our Protestant denominations 
there are a hundred, and I think at least one for each pres- 
bytery and classis and consociation. Never have I had 
such full appreciation of the fact that God has His children 
in all denominations. ' I believe in God the Father Al- 
mighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ, 
and in the Communion of Saints.' 

"Never have I had such opportunity of cultivating pa- 
tience as during these six weeks. A few summers ago I 
lay down in the woods and fell asleep. When I woke up I 
found a caterpillar on my foot, an ant crawling up my 
sleeve, and spiders weaving their webs across my body — 
one web across my boot, one across my knee, one across my 



136 LIFE OF REV, T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



waist, one across my chin, one across my nose, one across 
my forehead — just seven specifications ! But I got up and 
shook myself, and took a good wash, and felt well. I call 
you to witness that I have for six weeks lain quietly and 
allowed all sorts of spiders to crawl over me, and said 
nothing; but I think it is about time for me to get up and 
shake myself. I got no harm from my experience in the 
woods. I expect to get no harm from my experience in the 
Presbytery. I pronounce my benediction upon all this 
body. I have no complaint to make. There are two or 
three regrets I might mention. I regret that when, years 
ago, I offered to leave this whole matter to a committee, 
that committee was refused. I regret also that when, two 
months ago, a committee of five was appointed, they heard 
my enemies but would not hear one of my friends. I 
offered in one afternoon to show them the falsity of all the 
charges, but they would not give me one second to the 
hearing of one of my friends, while they spent two weeks 
in gathering up the venom of my enemies. That is a regret 
in which all fair-minded men will share. 

" The actions of that committee have made more infidels 
than all of them will ever be able to make Christians. At 
some of the committee I was not much surprised, but I 
would have thought that the senior member of it would 
have been very careful about making the scandal of this 
trial, because of his own past experience. There has been 
much discussion as to whether my church and its pastor 
would leave the Presbyterian denomination on account of 
the atrocity attempted on me. I was born in the Presby- 
terian Church, the Reformed Church being one branch of 
the great Presbyterian family. I shall go with my people 
wherever they go. I believe in them as much as they be- 
lieve in me. A more highly-educated, refined and cou* 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 13(T 

gervative group of men and women is not to be found on 
this planet. I hope for the present they will stay in this 
denomination (Van Dyke's). The power that was the bane 
of this Presbytery is now broken, and there is going to be 
more room for free action. The thumbscrews are going out 
of modern ecclesiasticism. A great many things have trans- 
pired in the Presbytery that are no more Presbyterianism 
than they are South Sea cannibalism. More liberty of 
thought and deed hereafter in the Brooklyn Presbytery. 
We cannot all work the same way. Some of the brethren 
have said that they do not like my way of preaching. I 
just as much dislike theirs. They do not sanction mine. I 
could not endure theirs. It is certain that as many people 
like mine as theirs. My way of preaching is poor enough; 
but I know theirs will never save the world! God seems 
to have blessed my work as much as He has theirs; but I will 
make a bargain with them. I will let them have their 
Way if they will let me have mine. It has been said on this 
trial that I have eccentricities. If so, they are natural. I 
have never cultured but one eccentricity, and that is, never 
to pursue any one engaged in Christian work! It makes 
but little difference to me whether a fisherman uses Conroy 
tackle with fly of golden pheasant, or a crooked stick which 
he cut out of the woods with his own jack-knife, if he only 
catches the fish. Get men into the Kingdom of God. Who 
cares about the way you get them in? Six years ago I went 
to the Adirondacks with a hunting and fishing apparatus 
loaned me by a friend. The apparatus was worth about 
five hundred dollars. If the trout and the deer of Saranac 
Lake and John Brown's Tract could have understood my 
baggage, they would have been very apprehensive. Such 
reels! Such bait boxes! Such cartridges! Such Bradford 
flies! Such pocket flasks for soda water and lemonade! 



138 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



Suffice it to say I did not interfere with the happiness of the 
piscatory or zoological world. While I was laboriously 
getting ready, a mountaineer with an old blunderbuss shot 
three deer. I found that splendid apparatus did not imply 
great execution. What is true in the woods is true in the 
Church. All our elaborate and costly theological apparatus 
is a failure if we cannot catch souls. 

" On this trial my methods have been criticised because 
some of you do not understand what my theory of preach 
ing is. When I go into the pulpit I say, c During this one 
hour and a half I am going to see how many people I can 
help, and help right away.' We all want help. Our chil- 
dren are dead, and we want to know whether there is any 
place this side or the other of the sun where we can get 
them into our arms again. To most of us life is a struggle, 
and we want a Christ to sympathize with us in the struggle. 
Five hundred thousand people in Brooklyn who want help. 
Twelve hundred millions of a race wanting help. Eternal 
God help us to help them. Brethren, I preach the best I 
can. You could not stand it to hear me preach, and I 
would not for a salary of five thousand dollars a year sit 
and hear some of you preach. If you want me different 
you will have to make me over again; but if you do under- 
take the job of making me over again, like unto which of 
these presbyters will you make me? Do let me have a 
choice of models. 

" This is certain: I will hereafter be more intense in my 
way. I have been stupid long enough in sermonizing; I 
am hereafter going to be interesting, if such a thing is pos- 
sible. The brethren say I am orthodox, and I admit that 
they are orthodox; but I give them notice that I am here- 
after going to be orthodox in a more interesting way. Xo 
more humdrum for me. I have learned this from the news- 



LIFE OF REV, T. DE "WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 139 



papers of the country. Why do all the people read the 
newspapers? Because the newspapers are interesting. How 
are we to get our churches thronged with worshipers? By 
making our religious services interesting. Hereafter count 
me out of the old way of doing things. I have been asked 
whether I intend to withdraw from this Presbytery. I 
might, perhaps, but for brother Tan Dyke's assertion that 
he should withdraw in case of my acquittal. What would 
become of the Presbyterian Church if we should both 
leave it? I think perhaps I had better stay and watch the 
wreck. But I must adjourn most of what I have to say to 
my own pulpit, where I feel more at home and have larger 
audiences. Meanwhile I pray for you and your families all 
happiness and prosperity. I commend you to God and to 
the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up and 
give you an inheritance among all them that are sancti- 
fied.*' 

On this extraordinary trial the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher 
commented as follows in his paper, the " Christian Union" : 

"With the majority the verdict seems to have been a 
matter of calm and deliberate conviction, while the minority, 
if we may judge from their arguments, were not wholly 
free from passion and vindictive sentiment. 

" In truth, however, the Brooklyn Presbytery, rather than 
Dr. Talmage, has been on trial, and ecclesiasticism more 
than either. The unbelieving world has looked on, at first 
with curiosity, and then with anything but reverence or even 
respect, at the proceedings of this 'Court of Jesus Christ. 5 
It has wondered what example of charity, mutual forbear- 
ance, mutual consideration, and, above all, of disinterested 
and dispassionate love of truth and equal justice, the Church 
had to show to the world, and it has been amazed at the 
extraordinary example actually presented. How, it has 



140 LIFE OF KEY. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



asked, do the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ proceed in 
order to learn the truth concerning a disciple accused of um 
Christian conduct? To the answer given it has listened 
either with sorrowful silence or with open derision. 

" It is simply astonishing that in this nineteenth century 
a body of Christian ministers can devise no method more 
in accord with the spirit and principles inculcated by Jesus 
Christ for the determination of the truth of 'common 
fame' respecting a brother, than this modified form of 
Anglo-Saxon paganism. Imagine the question of Paul's 
orthodoxy, or John Mark's consistency, left to be determ- 
ined by appointing Peter to stretch every nerve to prove 
him guilty, John to employ every stratagem to prove him 
innocent, and the rest of the apostles to decide between 
them after the sacred sparring-match was over! 

" "What method could we propose? In the absence of 
any better suggestion, we think it might be well for the 
disciples of Christ to try the method which Christ recom- 
mended. If any brother felt himself personally injured by 
Dr. Talmage, or felt that a more serious injury had been 
inflicted on the Churches of Christ by his conduct, he might 
go to him alone to remonstrate: if that did no good, he 
might take one or two discreet brethren, and make, with 
their aid, a more vigorous attempt to rectify the wrong; 
and, if that also failed, he might then leave Dr. Talmage 
alone, and if necessary make a public statement why he 
chose to do so. This is not a method very much in vogue 
in any Christian denomination as yet. It affords no field 
for forensic displays, and no opportunity for newspaper 
notoriety, We will not say that even some better method 
of dealing with Christian ministers accused by that c devil's 
advocate' of modern society, 'common fame,' may not be 
discovered or invented in the future, But we think we are 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 141 



quite prepared to say that trial by wager of battle in a 
' Court of J esus Christ ' is not such an invention as will 
commend itself to the average unbeliever as any improve- 
ment on Christ's forgotten plan." 

In the " Christian World " of London, under date June 
6, 1879, an article appeared from the pen of the Rev, Dr. 
Parker of the City Temple, Holborn, which was generally 
regarded as a kind of " summing up " against Dr. Talmage. 
But since then Dr. Parker has published a sort of recanta - 
tion of that judgment, and as the change in his mind! 
was wrought by a visit from the Rev. Charles Wood,, 
of Buffalo, United States, a Presbyterian minister, and 
now in England as one of the representatives of the Ameri- 
can Presbyterians to the General Assembly of the Church &£ 
Scotland, we think it only fair to Dr. Parker and Dr. Tal~- 
mage to give the article referred to: "My readers will 
unanimously bear me witness that from first to last I have 
had only kind words for Dr. Talmage. Some time since it 
was rumored that he had acted a very singular j>art in 
the matter of a fatal accident on an American river, H@ 
made a complete and triumphant reply, which I re L 
duced, adding a few words of most hearty sympathy and! 
interest. When I was in Brooklyn six years ago, Dr. Tal - 
mage received me most kindly; he asked me to preach to* 
his people; he said kind things in his paper; and, in short, 
he showed all possible friendliness. These are things which 
I do not easily forget, so when this trial business came nip 
my whole heart went out after Talmage and my confidence 
in him was unreserved. I had made up my mind to ask 
him to preach in the City Temple, and to show him all 
hospitality and affection. Whilst in this state of mind 
the 6 New York Evangelist ' came into my hands, and it con- 
tained the first and only connected and apparently complete 



142 LIFE OF REV, T, £1 WITT TALMAGE, D D. 



statement of the trial I had seen, and I perused it with 
eager interest. Being almost wholly ignorant of Presby« 
terian methods of procedure, I supposed that Dr. Van 
Dyke was making the formal accusation, and that Dr. Tal- 
lage said about all he had to say in self-explanation and 
defence. Van Dyke's statement was so clear, so moderate, 
and so detailed, and Dr. Talmage's speech was so off-handed 
and so jocular, that I began to fear that there was more 
substance in the accusation than I at first supposed. But 
on Saturday night last the Rev. Charles Wood called upon 
m£, and gave me a copy of the speech which had been 
used by Dr. Talmage's counsel, that I might see exactly 
how the defense stood. I have learned that Dr. Van Dyke 
Is a near neighbor of Dr. Talmage's, that he is a good and 
able man, but that his congregation is small. I do not 
know the effect of this upon an American Presbyterian, 
but I do know exactly what it would be in the case of 
some English Congregationalists. The effect would be a 
most virulent and unreasoning prejudice against the suc- 
cessful man, and all sorts of snarling criticisms would be 
passed upon him. If c John Strong,' for example, were in 
Van Dyke's position, nothing would be too venomous or 
cruel for him to say; as for a few perversions here and 
there, they would be of very small account if the object 
in view, namely, the torment of the successful man, re- 
quired their aid. It has come to pass that Van Dyke 
has done exactly what c John Strong' has done; that 
is to say, he has, under a feigned name, written a letter 
to a Philadelphia newspaper respecting Talmage, which 
letter is, in my opinion, shamefully disgraceful. The 
man who could write such a letter, under an assumed 
name, about a brother minister and a near neighbor, is 
capable of making any accusation, and ought not to be, 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 143 

listened to for one moment. I hate cowardice. I have 
suffered so much from it myself, and have seen so fre- 
quently the damnable treatment of one minister by another, 
envy and jealousy of the vilest kind being in common 
use, that I am determined to denounce it by speech and pen 
wherever I find it. Had I read Van Dyke's letter first I 
should certainly never have read his speech. He wrote to 
Philadelphia, signed himself 6 Augustin,' and said the 
meanest things of his nearest neighbor. Turning from this, 
let me ask, 'Who was Dr. Talmage's counsel ? ' The answer 
is, ' Dr. Spear, of Brooklyn.' Dr. Spear is an old-school 
Presbyterian, who had no particular liking either for Tal- 
mage or his methods; a venerable, quiet, cautious man, who 
has lived an obscurely public life, honored and beloved by 
his own people. Dr. Spear comes out of this trial with a 
real love for Dr. Talmage, thinking him far enough from a 
perfect man, but still giving him his affection and confi- 
dence. I no sooner got hold of Dr. Spear's speech than I 
went at once to the charge about leaving 6 The Christian at 
Work ' dishonorably. That was the principal charge in 
toy opinion. I have read the defense, and it now appears 
(1) that the newspaper was very far from being a financial 
success; (2) that Dr. Talmage had given notice to leave it; 
(3) that the paper was sold without Dr. Talmage's knowl- 
edge; (4) that Dr. Talmage was not told to whom it was 
sold; (5) that on hearing of the sale he went down to the 
office after the paper was made up and took out an article 
to make room for a very short valedictory, saying that he 
was going over to another paper, and leaving his address. 
Of course, it was very singular that on the very day of this 
being done, there was to have been an advertisement in the 
* Christian at Work,' referring to the paper to which Tal- 
mage was going, of which advertisement, however, Tal- 



144 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

mage says he knew nothing, and no proof has been given 
that he did know of it. Now all this puts a very different 
complexion upon the matter from that which it was made 
at first to bear. If I was asked to sit down and find all the 
fault I could with the case, even as Dr. Spear puts it, I could 
find a good deal of very serious fault; on the other hand, 
Talmage had suffered (so he said) a good deal of provo- 
cation, the paper was not a success in his hands, he had given 
notice to leave it, and he was forced by others into very 
sudden action. I dare not say that I should be a better 
man under the circumstances, and therefore I cannot con- 
demn Talmage. What the other defenses may be I cannot 
say, for I have not yet read them. I instinctively go over 
to the side of the man who is accused. I have always done 
this, and I hope always to do so. I hate the accusatory 
spirit; it is devil-born, and infinitely detestable. At the 
same time I like to get at the reality of the case, and have 
the full consent of my own mind in giving any man my sup- 
port. Possibly I may return to the subject next week; 
meanwhile, I vote that the first charge is not sufficiently 
sustained. 

" Joseph Pardee. 

" City Temple." 

With this we must now take leave of this remarkable 
trial. Of one thing we have no doubt, that whatever errors 
of judgment Dr. Talmage may have committed— and we 
neither believe in his infallibility nor that of his accusers — 
public confidence in the general integrity of his heart and 
life will remain undisturbed. And we are perfectly sure we 
express the wishes of tens of thousands of Christians of all 
denominations and in all lands, when we pray that this trial, 
sharp and painful as it has been to Dr. Talmage, may be 
sanctified to prepare him for far greater, wider, and higher 
usefulness, to the glory of God. 



CHAPTER XI, 



DR. TALMAGE's VISIT TO EUROPE m 1879 — DEPATTJRE FROM 
AMERICA, MAY 28, 1879. 

The intense excitement created in Brooklyn by the an- 
nouncement that Dr. Talmage, Mrs. Talmage, and Miss 
Jessie Talmage would visit England, found its outlet in the 
following manner. Arrangements were made to freight 
the palatial steamer, " Grand "Republic," to convey over 
three thousand people, members and other friends, so far as 
Sandy Hook, to bid them good-bye. The vessel was gaily 
decked with flags from stem to stern. Among the friends 
on board the "Grand Republic" were Revs. E. S.Porter, 
J. W. Williamson, C. K Sims, B. G. Benedict, J. S. Davi- 
son, B. B. Brake, O. S. St, John, A. Taylor, T. Evans, J. 
A. Baldwin, G. C. Lucas, L. Parker, and L. Gilbert, In 
attendance also, were Mayor Howell, Aldermen French and 
Aitken, ex-Mayor Hunter, City Treasurer Mr. Little, Jus- 
tice Bloom, Assessor Norton, Police Commissioner Jourdan, 
the United States District Attorney, A. W. Tenney, Messrs. 
♦Selmes, Low, Hendris, Britton, Skidmore, McXeil, Powell, 
Beeke, Fairfield, Lane, Voorhees, Martin, Brockarday, 
Quimby, Pierson, Van Benchoston, Jones, Smith, Winslow, 
Jardine, Masters, Miles, Temple, Quackenboss, Adams; 
Professors West, Dutcher, Arbuckle, Crittenden, &c. Music 
by Wernig's 23d Regiment Band, was played in stirring 
airs from the Tabernacle " collection." Lender the pilot- 
age of Major Corwin, Dr. Talmage passed through crowds 
of people to Jewell's dock, and punctually at 9 A. M. found 



146 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D,D. 



himself in the midst of over three thousand friends and 
members of his church. A large number of the Presby- 
terian clergy, and of other denominations, were on board to 
express their best wishes for Dr. Talmage and family. The 
" Grand Republic " then swung off into the stream, amid a 
chorus of music and steam-whistles, followed by a volley of 
cheers which rang over the water in the steamer's wake. 
A rapid run was made to the Battery, Pier 40, North 
River, where the magnificent " Gallia," of the Cunard line 
lay swarming with passengers and their friends. Here an- 
other volley of cheers went up, as Dr. Talmage and his 
family stepped upon the deck. They immediately took 
their station on the quarter-deck of the "Gallia," and waved 
their farewells. Cheer after cheer was given by the Taber- 
nacle people, as their boat hauled out into the stream, the 
band playing "Sweet By-and-By." About 11 A. M. the 
Cunarder steamed rapidly seaward, followed sharply by the 
" Grand Republic." Soon both vessels were off Staten 
Island, when the " Grand Republic " steered alongside the 
" Gallia," and the band played another lively air. This 
brought Dr. Talmage and family again on deck, who waved 
their hankerchiefs, as the great vessel swept out to sea. Both 
vessels having passed the Narrows, and out into the lower 
bay, the passengers of the "Gallia" were thrilled by the pro- 
longed cheers of " the Tabernacle excursionists," and were 
themselves prompted to throng the port gunwale, and re- 
turn the cheers. From the "Grand Republic" Mr. Ar- 
buckle, of the Tabernacle, with his silver trumpet, sent the 
strains of the Doxology after the Doctor, the regimental 
band furnished the accompaniment, and then the company 
of three thousand lifted their voices, and gave the last 
"Farewell! " This was overwhelming to the Doctor; but 
quickly putting his hands to his mouth, he shouted a last 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 147 



"Good-bye, God bless you! " Several hundred yards sepa- 
! rated these vessels, yet his words fell upon all ears with a 

startling distinctness. The " Grand Republic " then headed 
; for New York, and the magnificent " Gallia " made a 

rapid and splendid voyage to England. 

THE " GALLIA " OFF QUEENSTOWN. 

On May 15 we received a cable telegram announcing Dr. 
Talmage's intended visit to England, and immediately made 
arrangements to meet and welcome him off Queenstown. By 
the courtesy of the famous Cunard Company's agents,Messrs. 
D. & C. Mclver, the necessary documents were completed 
for our transit by the steam-tender, which would be 
sent out to receive the mails from the " Gallia " in mid- 
ocean. After a stormy passage of several hours, the steam- 
tender bravely accomplished her task, and we were duly 
landed on board. The Doctor and his family had retired 
to rest, having given up all hope of the steam-tender reach- 
ing the " Gallia." The surprise was great when we were 
announced, and a cordial greeting followed. Arriving safely 
in Liverpool, we accompanied the distinguished visitors to 
London, where the journey was safely completed on Satur- 
day, June 7, at 2:30 P. M. 

IN ENGLAND. 

On Sunday, June 8, Dr. Talmage twice attended the 
services at Westminster Abbey to hear Canon Farrar (author 
of the "Life of Christ") and the famous Dean Stanley. 
In the evening he worshiped with the largest regular con- 
gregation in England at Mr. Spurgeon's Metropolitan Taber- 
nacle, and had the gratification of shaking hands with the 
pastor at the close of the service. 

We have pleasure in reprinting an article which appeared 



liS LIFE OF Spf, T, DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



in the " Liverpool Protestant Standard/' under date June 

Mi 1879: 

JLAXDIXG OF THE REV. DE. T1LMAGE, 

" The great Talmage of America landed in Liverpool on 

last Saturday, and after a brief stay journeyed on to Lon- 
don. This eminent divine and Christian warrior has of 
late months been made the target for abuse and vituperation 
from men whose chief characteristics are composed of envy, 
jealousy, and wind. The accusations which these men 
brought against Dr. Talmage were almost too silly and 
absurd to command attention at all; but as the wisest of 
men suggested that there are times when even fools should be 
answered according to their folly lest they be wise in their 
own conceit, we suppose that it was considered necessary 
that the accusers of Dr. Talmage should have a grand and 
unrestricted opportunity of making their folly known to 
all men. And in this not very enviable particular they 
have been most eminently successful; and so it happens 
that Dr. Talmage instead of being crushed by his des- 
picable persecutors has risen higher and higher in the 
estimation of all good, true and noble men, while his 
fcraducers are sinking lower and lower into the pit of un- 
utterable yet well-merited contempt. For our part we 
have never at any time considered that Dr. Talmage or 
his character needed one word of defense from the pen 
of any writer. The mighty work which he has accom- 
plished through his heart-stirring sermons proclaims him 
to be a man sent of God. Xo one pulpit orator of modern 
times, that we know of, has more vigorously, bravely, 
and valiantly attacked sin and evil in every shape and 
form than Dr. Talmage. of Brooklyn. Under his scathing 
denunciations of vice and iniquity he has caused the devil 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 149 



to roar with rage and his satellites to gnash their teeth 
with pain. !STo wonder was it that the spirits of demonism 
both in and out of the flesh combined together in order to 
try to accomplish the ruin of so great and such an uncom- 
promising enemy of the kingdom of darkness. To blast 
the reputation of Talmage meant Satanic triumphs at which 
all hell would rejoice, Did not Dr. Talmage fearlessly 
attack official corruption in high quarters? Did he not 
stand up as the champion of the Bible in the public schools 
when its enemies tried to shut it out from the educational 
department? Did he not openly expose the vices of wealthy 
profligates who reveled in lust and unholy pleasures in the 
gilded palaces of debauchery of Brooklyn and Xew York 
cities? Did he not proclaim with apostolic earnestness and 
zeal a free and full salvation for every repentant sinner 
who sought pardon and forgiveness through the all-suffi- 
cient merits of the blood of Christ? Has he not charmed 
tens of thousands of young men and young women through- 
out the length and breadth of America, and also in the 
fatherland, by his sermons, and won them over from the 
follies of low, grovelling pursuits to the higher platform of 
noble thoughts and actions? Having done then so many 
things to ameliorate the condition of humanity and to make 
the world wiser and better, brighter and happier, it becomes 
a matter of no wonder that a special legion oi unclean and 
calumniating spirits were let loose against him — for surely 
the Prince of the power of the ^ir- which now worketh in 
the children of disobedience, saw that his kingdom and his 
craft for the destruction of souls was becoming seriously 
endangered through the merciless onslaughts made upon it 
by ihe brave and valiant Talmage. To destroy the repu- 
tation of such a man was an object worth struggling for on 
the part of such a master mind in the realms and literature 



150 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



of iniquity as that of Beelzebub. But the old serpent, with 
all his subtility, has again been foiled; and so it has come 
to pass that Talmage, like Shadrach, Meshacb, and Abed- 
nego of old, having abided for awhile in the sevenfold- 
heated furnace into which his enemies cast him, has come 
out from thence without a single hair of his head singed, 
nor is there the slightest scorch of the fire to be seen upon 
him. Well and truly saith the Scripture to all those who 
fight the Lord's battles: 6 Greater is He that is for you than 
he that is against you.'" 

WELCOME TO REV. DR. TALMAGE BY REV. DR. DAVIDSON, OF 
ISLINGTON, AND HIS ELDERS AND DEACONS. 

In announcing at the morning service in Colebrooke Row 
that Dr. Talmage was to occupy his pulpit in the evening, 
Dr. Thain Davidson said: "De Witt Talmage is certainly 
a remarkable man, endowed with gifts of an exceptional 
order. Of his sermons Mr. Spurgeon has said : i They lay 
hold of my inmost soul; certainly the Lord is with this 
mighty man of valor.' I am quite aware that cruel and 
unkind things have been said of him; eminent men rarely 
escape the tongue of slander; but, personally, I have entire 
confidence in Dr. Talmage, and, with the majority of his 
presbytery, believe him to be innocent of the charges laid 
against him, and to be a guileless and greatly gifted ser- 
vant of the Lord." 

At a full meeting; of the elders and deacons, it was unani- 
mously resolved that Dr. Davidson be requested to assure 
Dr. Talmage that they heartily united with their pastor in 
the expression of confidence and regard. 

DR. TALMAGE AT THE PRESBYTERIAN CHTRCn, ISLINGTON. 

Dr. Talmage, having been announced to preach his first 
sermon at Dr. Thain Davidson's church, Colebrooke Row, 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMA GE, B.& 151 

Islington, large numbers of people assembled in front of 
the church at about 5:30 P. M., but the members of the 
congregation and their friends, who had obtained tickets of 
admission, entered at the side door. The church rapidly 
filled, and at 6 o'clock was almost inconveniently crowded. 
At. 6:15, notwithstanding the crowded state of the church, 
the front doors, at which considerable clamor had for some 
time been heard, were thrown open, and part of the large 
crowd, which had by that time assembled, rushed in. Not 
many minutes elapsed before the edifice was full to over- 
flowing, but the crowd continued to press forward into the 
aisles and the gallery. Immediately began a scene of com 
fusion and uproar, which we think it is safe to assert has 
never been seen in this church before; and amidst cries of 
" No room," " Xo room," " Crush, crush," " We cannot move 
here," Dr. Davidson ascended the pulpit and appealed to 
the people to remember that they were in the house of 
prayer, and begged them to abstain from unseemly exclama- 
tions. The hubbub ceased for a few minutes, but presently 
recommenced and with the same cries repeated. A gentle^, 
man in the gallery was heard to remind the people that 
they were not in the pit of a theater, but in the house of 
God. 

Dr. Davidson then announced the well-known Itymn, 
commencing " Jesus shall reign where'er the sun." sn-dsaul: 
"Before we sing these words I want to say o v wd or t\vo> 
in the way of giving a cordial welcome to tke distinguished 
stranger beside me in this pulpit, I have not had the 
privilege of being a hearer in my own church since the day 
when my late dear and beloved friend, Dp. Guthrie, of 
Edinburgh, preached that noble sermon of his which some 
of you will remember, upon ' walking by faith and not by 
sight.' I had chanced to remark last Sunday evening that 



152 LIFE OY BEV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



I had often longed to be a hearer instead of a preached 
here, but I had no idea then that I was so soon to have the 
privilege and the joy of listening to one who, by his inex- 
haustible originality, his fearless plainness of speech, and 
his unmatched pictorial power, has not only got around him 
the largest congregation in America, but has secured in all 
parts of the world, from week to week, through the press, 
his hundreds of thousands of interested and profited hearers. 
Well, speaking for myself, I welcome Dr. Talmage with my 
whole heart, and feel honored that his first sermon in Eng- 
land should be preached in this pulpit, and not only so, but 
I may mention to him a gratifying circumstance which oc- 
curred to-day. My elders and deacons, at an improvised 
meeting, unanimously requested me to convey to Dr. 
Talmage, in their name as well as my own, a cordial and 
loving welcome. Well, my friends; this is not the largest, 
but it is one of the oldest of our Presbyterian churches in 
London. When Dr. Talmage kindly offered to give me 
the benefit of his first sermon here, I thoiight it would be 
selfish to have him here. I pressed upon him and his 
friends the duty of his going to the Agricultural Hall; but 
for reasons which I can quite understand, Dr. Talmage 
desired to spend a quiet evening in London. I am afraid 
that is a luxury he will hardly have here to-night. Let me 
say, however, for the consolation of those who are disap- 
pointed, that Dr. Talmage has kindly promised me that 
before he returns to America he will hold an afternoon 
service at the Agricultural Hall. I may say, in conclusion, 
that I have very often read his graphic sermons with a 
feeling of wonder; for, unless it be Dr. Guthrie, I regard 
my friend beside me as the greatest word-painter the age 
has produced; and I pray God that, unharmed by the lip of 
flattery or the tongue of slander, this splendid gift may 
long be consecrated to the service of his Master." 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 153 



The text which Dr. Talmage selected on this occasion is 
found in Rev. vii. 17: "And God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes." The late Rev. John Angell James, of 
Birmingham, was accustomed to say that he never cared to 
hear an "unbruised minister," for that it was only those 
who had passed under the bruising Hand of God that could 
speak so as to comfort and help troubled minds. We think 
we could see in the deep and exquisite tenderness, and the 
far-extending sympathies which, like precious odors, per- 
fumed the sermon on the " tearless world," th© benefit and 
blessing with which God is already sanctifying His serv- 
ant's troubles to make him not only a Boanerges, " a son of 
thunder," but a Barnabas also, "a son of consolation," 
May it be so ! 

THE TESTIMONY OF AN AMERICAN JOURNAL. 

The following remarks concerning Dr. Talmage recently- 
appeared in a first-class American journal: 

" No other preacher addresses so many constantly. The 
words of no other preacher were ever before carried by so 
many types, or carried so far. Types give him three con- 
tinents for a church, and the English-speaking world for a 
congregation. The judgment of his generation will, of 
course, be divided upon him, just as that of the next 
will not. That he is a topic in every newspaper, is much 
more significant than the fact of what treatment it gives 
him. Only men of genius are universally commented 
on. The universality of the comment makes friends and 
foes alike prove the fact of the genius. That is what 
is impressive. As for the quality of the comment, it 
will, in nine cases out of ten, be much more a revela- 
tion of the character behind the pen which writes it than 
a true view or review of the man. This is necessarily so« 



15£ LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D, 



r The press and the pulpit in the main are defective judges 
of one another. The former rarely enters the inside of the 
latter's work. There is acquaintanceship, but not intimacy 
between them. Journals find out the fact of a preacher's 
power in time. Then they go looking for the causes. Long 
before, however, the masses have felt the causes and have 
realized, not merely discovered, the fact. The penalty of 
being the leader of great masses has, from Whitfield and 
Wesley to Spurgeon and Talmage, been to serve as the 
target for small wits. Their attacks confirms a man's right 
respect and reputation, and are a proof of his influence 
and greatness. It can be truly said that w^hile secular 
criticisms in the United States favorably regards our sub- 
ject in proportion to its intelligence and uprightness, the 
judgment of foreigners on him has long been an index to 
the judgment of posterity here. No other American is 
read so much and so constantly abroad. His extraordinary 
imagination, earnestness, descriptive powers and humor, 
his great art in grouping and arrangement, his wonderful 
mastery of words to illumine and alleviate human condi- 
tions, and to interpret and inspire the harmonies of the bet- 
ter nature,, are appreciated by all who can put themselves 
in sympathy with his originality of methods and his high 
consecration of purpose. His manner mates with his na- 
ture. It is each sermon in action. He presses the eyes, 
hands, his entire body, into the service of the illustrative 
truth. Gestures are the accompaniment of what he says* 
As he stands out before the immense throng, without a 
scrap of notes or manuscript before him, the effect pro- 
duced cannot be understood by those who have never see?!, 
it. The solemnity, the tears, the awful hush, as though 
the audience could not breathe again, are oftentimes paif 
ful 



I^FE OF KEY. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 155 

- ilis voice is peculiar, not musical, but productive of 
startling, strong effects, such as characterize no preacbef 
on either side of the Atlantic. His power to grapple an 
audience and master it from text to peroration has no 
equal. No man was ever less self-conscious in his work. 
He feels a mission of evangelization on him as by the im- 
position of the Supreme. That mission he responds to by 
doing the duty that is nearest to him with all his might — 
as confident that he is under the care and order of a Divine 
Master as those w r ho hear him are that they are under the 
spell of the greatest prose-poet that ever made the Gospel 
his song and the redemption of the race the passion of his 
heart." 

An English correspondent, w r ho recently heard Dr. Tal- 
mage in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, writes as follows: 

" I worshiped in the Tabernacle on the Sabbath. It was 
only by sending my card to an acquaintance that we ob- 
tained seats. Hundreds went away who could not obtain 
standing room. The throng packed into the great church 
w r as estimated at about 6,000. The singing was congrega- 
tional, and as good as any heard in the Moody Tabernacle 
in Chicago. The Scripture reading, the praise, the sermon 
were all delightful, Every utterance of the preacher is 
evangelical, the pure old Gospel, comforting to saints, full 
of warning to sinners. No effort was made to touch the sen- 
sibilities, and yet I saw tears on many strong faces. This is 
the Gospel of our fathers. It is the Gospel of our Church, 
It is the Gospel of our Blessed God. Why should not 
Satan seek the destruction of such a far reaching instru- 
mentality of the truth as it is in J esus? " 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE WELCOME HOME. 

Brooklyn's welcome to Dr. Talmage was tendered on the 
evening of October third, 1879, at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. 
It was a great demonstration and showed the high estima- 
tion and love in which the celebrated preacher is held, not 
only by his own flock, but by the people generally. The Tab- 
ernacle never contained a more magnificent audience. There 
were between five and six thousand persons present, fully 
one-half of whom were ladies. It Avas an assemblage repre- 
senting the wealth, the culture and the best people of Brook- 
lyn. The professions were largely represented. In point 
of enthusiasm, the occasion has had but few equals in this 
city; the audience appeared to be fairly carried away by 
their feelings, and applauded the sentiments of the preacher, 
and the various other speakers, to the echo. 

Skillful hands had decorated the interior of the Taber- 
nacle with flowers and bunting. A floral bulwark had been 
erected about the platform, and from it depended curling 
vines. Fronting the great organ pipes was a crayon por- 
trait of Dr. Talmage, executed and presented by Mr. E. H. 
Hart, of Philadelphia, and directly under it was the floral 
legend " Welcome. " The same word appeared on numer- 
ous pillows of flowers about the platform. 

Surmounting the frame work of the organ a star of gas 
jets blazed forth, and about half way down the front of the 
instrument, in letters of fire, shone the words " Glory to 
God. " American and British flags, intertwined, helped also 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 157 



to set off the organ front. Facing the gallery, all around, 
were Sunday-school banners and flowers in great profusion, 
and the atmosphere of the room was redolent with the per- 
fume of the choicest products of the conservatory. 

Excellent arrangements had been made to receive the 
people. Long before seven o'clock a great crowd assem- 
bled on Schermerhorn street, near the church, awaiting an 
opportunity to enter. Only those who had tickets were 

i admitted up to half -past seven o'clock, and at that hour 
nearly every seat in the house was occupied. At a quarter 

■ to eight o'clock the doors were opened to all, and within 
five minutes every inch of standing room was filled, while 
the street was thronged by those unable to get inside. 

On the platform were United States District Attorney A. 
W. Tenney, the Chairman of the evening. Mayor Howell sat 
at his left and Rev. Dr. Farley on his right. Sitting on either 
side of them were ex-Mayors Hunter and Schroeder, Judge 
Neilson, of the City Court; Rev. Dr. Ingersoll, Rev. Dr. J. 
O. Peck, of the St. John's M. E. Church; Rev. Dr. Lans- 
ing, Rev. Hugh Smith Carpenter, Bernard Peters, ex-Dis- 
trict Attorney Winslow, Commodore Nicholson, Captain 
Andrews, of the steamship Erin; John Williams and 
others. Scattered through the house were noticed numer- 
ous well known citizens, including Hon. Henry C. Murphy, 
Dr. Joseph C. Hutchinson, Rev. Dr. Spear, Superintendent 
Police Campbell, ex-Superintendent Folk, Dr. H. A. Tuck- 
er, Frederick Baker, J. B. Hutchinson, Isaac Hall, N. L, 

| Munro, Major Culyer and many others. 

i Mr. Powell, the assistant organist, played a voluntary 

I and filled in the time till eight o'clock, when Mr. George 
W. Morgan took his seat at the big organ and began, to 
play "Home, Sweet Home," Prof essor Peter Ali, cornetist, 
accompanying him. 



158 LIFE OF REV. T, DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

At that moment there was a movement in the back pari 
of the house, and Dr. Talmage was observed making his 
way down the aisle leading to the platform. He was es* 
corted by Dr. Tucker on his right and Mr. O. H. Franken- 
bergh on his left* 

The audience arose, and amid a storm of applause Dr. Tal- 
mage passed down the aisle, ascended the platform, shook 
hands with each gentleman there and then took a seat on 
the right of Mr. Tenney. The applause was renewed and 
the enthusiasm increased. The ladies waved their hand- 
kerchiefs and clapped their gloved and jeweled hands, and 
the gentlemen stamped and caned the floor, until it seemed 
as if the building shook. Dr. Talmage looked on with evi- 
dent pleasure. 

THE PROCEEDINGS. 

Quiet having at length been restored, the Chairman 
opened the proceedings. At his request the audience united 
in singing the song of welcome to the pastor, and they sang 
it with a will, Mr. Morgan playing the accompaniment, 
and Professor Ali leading with his cornet. 

Rev. Dr. Farley offered up a fervent prayer and Mrs. Eve- 
lyn Lyon Hegeman sang in her usual artistic style, " Thy 
People Shall be My People," from Ruth and Naomi. She 
responded to an encore with " The Dearest Spot on Earth 
to Me is Home, Sweet Home." The applause was great 
and Mr. Talmage joined in it heartily. 

The Chairman announced that letters had been received 
from a large number of gentlemen, who had been invited to 
be present, regretting their inability to attend and con- 
gratulating Dr. Talmage upon his success and his safe re- 
turn. Among those who sent letters were: Rev. Dr. Rock- 
well Rev. George E. Read, Rev. C. C, Hall, Rev. J. M, 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D»D, 159 



Buckley, D.D., Rev. F. K Zabriski, S.O., Rev. O. S. St. 
John, Rev. Joseph Deinarest, D.D., J. J. Henry, Hon. S. B. 
Chittenden, Rev. IT. D. Gulick, Rev. W. A. Leonard, Rev. 
F. Peck, and many others. 

The Chairman introduced as the first speaker of the even- 
Ting, Mr. Bernard Peters, editor of the " Brooklyn Times." 
Mr. Peters was received with applause, and in the course of 
his speech said that Dr. Talmage was the Caesar of the oc- 
casion, but he differed from the Roman in that his enemies 
had stabbed but could not kill him. 

Rev. Dr. Lansing, Rev. J. O. Peck, ex-District Attorney 
Winslow, and Rev. Dr. Ingersoil, each delivered brief, ap- 
propriate addresses assuring the Doctor of the high place 
he held in the estimation of good people. 

Miss Gracie Wattles, one of the scholars of the Sunday- 
school, then delivered the following welcome poem: 

Oft before our Heavenly Father 

Have Thy people bowed in prayer; 
Prayed that He would guide and guan) thee, 

Keep thee safe, with tenderest care- 
God has answered — we behold thee, 

Perils threatened thee in vain. 
Now our hearts and arms enfold thp<3; 

Welcome to thy home again. 

Welcome to thy holy calling, 

To the path thou long hast trod, 
Welcome, teacher, friend and pastor; 

Welcome, messenger of God. 
And when o'er death's swollen river 

All thy flock have safely passed. 
May we all, with joy forever, 

Welcomed be in Heaven at j#rt. 

A. W. Tenney, United States District Attorney then 
spoke as follows; 



160 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



SPEECH OF A. W. TEOEY. 

"Ladies and Gentlemen — The Committee of Arrange* 
ments have announced upon the programme that at this 
stage of the proceedings an address of welcome would be 
delivered by the Chairman. You can hardly expect any 
extended remarks from me after the interesting addresses 
which have already been made, the songs that have been 
sung and the sweet poem of welcome which has just been 
so exquisitely rendered by the little girl orator of the Sun- 
day-school of this church. Indeed, no words of mine are 
necessary to fittingly welcome Dr. Talmage and his hon- 
ored wife ( home again.' 

"It is this magnificent audience of five thousand and 
more; it is the thronged streets around and about this 
church; it is the Christian households and family altars of 
this great city that welcome them back to Brooklyn and to 
the holy services of this church. Yea, more, it is the 
Christian men and women of this entire land who bid them, 
welcome to-night, and with their welcome they mingle 
their thanksgivings to Almighty God, who held the wind 
and the waves in His hands, who stayed calamity and 
stopped disaster, and made it possible for them and theirs 
to journey the land and the sea unharmed, and after many 
days to return with renewed vigor and health to the scenes 
of their labors and the kindly greeting of friends and the 
loved ones at home. 

"And the question naturally arises, why is it that this 
royal welcome is tendered to Dr. Talmage to-night ? Why 
do we welcome him back to this church where he has 
preached so long and with such signal success, and to this 
platform, where, by divine appointment, he has a better 
right to stand than you or I ? 

" It is not because he is a citizen of Brooklyn merely. 



LIFE OF KEY. T, DE WITT TALMAUE, JD.D. 163 



It is not because of his magnificent and unprecedented re- 
ception by all classes of people in England, in Ireland, in 
Scotland and Wales. It is not because his recent visit to 
European shores had added new lustre to the American 
name. But it is because we with whom he lives, his neigh- 
bors and his friends, who have watched his coming in and 
going out among us for these many years, know full well 
What manner of man he is. It is because we, who have felt 
the sunshine of his life upon our own, know what a faithful 
and sincere minister of Christ he is, and we come here to- 
night in these mighty numbers to say to him, ' Welcome/ 
and ' Well done.' 

"We know, better than strangers know, how he has 
wrought for good in our midst. We know better than 
they what has been the work of his hand and brain for the 
last ten years. We know what battles he has fought and 
what victories he has won. We know, too, that other 
sublime fact, that Dr. Talmage is one of those ministers 
who believes in something, and who is brave enough and 
man enough to preach what he believes without first asking 
permission of the presbyteries or consociations. Yea, 
more, and what is even better, we know that he vitalizes, 
day by day, his precept* ind belief into generous acts and 
friendly deeds, 

" The Brooklyn Tabernacle has long been famed as a sort 
of ecclesiastical shooting gallery, where sin, with all its 
armor on, has been pierced to its very center, no matter 
whether it was the gilded sin of the palace or the wretched 
sin of the hovel In such a conflict as this, and with such 
such an experienced archer as he, is it any wonder that 
somebody has been hit ? And is it any wonder, too, that 
the wounded and the routed should sting and snarl and 
bite the dust. 



162 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D, 



" Said one of the most gifted men of our times, ' If yoti 
would know how grand a blow you have struck for any 
course, mark its rebound.' If you would know, my coun- 
trymen, what kind of blows Dr. Talmage has struck foi 
God and man, for truth and the right, for law and ordefj 
for good government and good society, mark the rebound 
of his critics and defamers. 

"Dr. Talmage, however cordial may have been your wel- 
come in foreign lands, for which we, your friends, are 
justly proud, and to those who tendered you the same we 
here and now give them grateful thanks. Nevertheless, let 
me assure you that none of these welcomes were more gen- 
erous and sincere than the one which it is our high privilege 
to tender you to-night. And let me assure you, further- 
more, that this greeting is not tendered you by your church 
and congregation alone. 

" It is true they are here in goodly numbers, anxiously 
waiting to greet you one by one. But this is Brooklyn's 
welcome, and I pray you receive it as such. Here are 
assembled the men and women of this great city, without 
regard to creed, sect or church affiliations. Here are the 
Presbyterians and the Congregationalists, the Baptists and 
the Unitarians, the Mothodists and the Episcopalians, each 
mingling their congratulations with the other as they 
unitedly welcome you back to the land of your birth and 
the city of your choice, 

"In the name, then, of your church and congregation, in 
the name of all the people of all the city, I congratulate 
you upon your auspicious journey and happy return, and I 
now welcome you, with all the enthusiasm this hour inspires, 
to our hearts and to our homes, to our friendship and to 
our love; but above ail, I welcome you to the sacred service 
of our Lord and Master, whom you have so faithfully served 



LIFE OF RET. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 163 



in the years that are gone. And may this greeting, so gener- 
ous, so hearty and so sincere, arch the future of your life 
with courage, with hope and with cheer, as you go forth 
battling for the welfare of the race. 

" And now, ladies and gentlemen, recognizing how expect- 
ant you are, and not desiring to detain you any longer, I 
have the extreme delight of introducing to you the guest 
of the evening, the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, 
the servant of God and the friend of mankind, the Rev. 
Dr. Talmage. " 

As Doctor Talmage came forward, the audience rose at 
once, men and women clapping their hands and waving their 
handkerchiefs and fans. He was visibly affected by the 
demonstration. The applause continued for fully a minute, 
and when quiet had been restored, the doctor spoke as 
follows: 

REMARKS OF MR. TALMAGE, 

"My good friends, you have made this the liappiest hour 
of my life. To my dying day I shall not forget this scene. 
The shout of farewell at Sandy Hook on May 23th, as our 
ships parted, has its echo in this magnificent reception. J 
feel altogether unworthy. It is only by extreme effort that 
I have come to the mastery of my emotion. I do not so 
much give you my thanks as give you myself, to be your 
servant for Jesus' sake. 

""When I see on this platform and around it the leading 
men in the legal, the medical, the literary, the clerical pro- 
fessions, men mighty in church and State; our Mayor, 
whom I thank God has been so far restored unto health as 
to be present to-night; our ex-Mayors Hunter and Schroe- 
der, each one of them having lifted one layer in the wall of 
our municipal prosperity; our Judge Neilson, honored on 



164 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.B. 

both sides for the manner in which he has worn the ermine", 
this great array of Christian clergymen, as kind and genial 
and talented and consecrated as any men who ever adorned 
the American pulpit, and this great throng of men and 
women, through whose prayers to Almighty God we safely 
crossed the stormy sea— when I consider all this, I feel that 
any attempt to make adequate expression of my gratitude 
must be a failure. 

" Oh, this occasion ought to make me an humbler and bet- 
ter man. If ever in some weak moment of my life I should 
try to build on this platform a sectarian wall to shut out 
those who do not happen to think as I do, the memory of 
this great catholic scene would stop the erection of that wall 
and the Calvinists would push it roughly on one side, and 
the Armenians would push it roughly on the other side, and 
the Episcopacy would rock it one way, and the non-Episco- 
pacy would rock it the other way, while the Baptist breth- 
ren would pull away the floor which covers the baptistry 
under this pulpit, and tumble the whole thing into the 
water. 

"The sentiment which has been growing in my heart for 
many years has climacterated to-night in the feeling that 
any man's theology is good enough for me, if he loves 
God and does his level best; and if ever in any weak 
moment of my life I should bethink myself the servant of 
only this individual church, then the memory of this con- 
gregation, made up from all denominations, and from all 
reforms, and from all charitable institutions which are in 
our city — eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and mothers 
to the orphans— the memory of this scene would send me 
out rebuked to say, 6 Wherever I can be of any help, with 
voice, or hand., or pen, I must be busy; by the memory of 
that scene in October, 1879, I must be the servant of tha 
city,' 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 165 



" Well, my friends, how have you been this summer ? I 
feel almost like saying, as that monarch of Irish orators, 
Daniel O'Connell, said when he arose to address an audience 
in Dublin, 6 How are you boys, and how are the women 
who own you? ' 

" It would not be in good taste for me to rehearse the 
scenes of welcome through which I have passed. When I 
look into your faces to-night 3 I remember that the most of 
you are the descendants of ancestors on the other side the 
sea, and I bring you the greeting of your English, Scotch 
and Irish cousins and brothers. Yea, I bring a flower from 
the graves of your dead, oh ye descendants of the English 
Reformers, and of the Scotch Covenanters, and of the 
Irishmen who fought for Catholic emancipation. The land 
of Robert Emmet and Edmund Burke and Tom Moore! 
Beautiful Ireland! Beautiful Ireland! Adorned with silver 
necklace of Killarney Lakes, her brow crowned with the 
Giant's Causeway. May the blood, the martyr blood of two 
hundred years move the heart of God for the quick deliver- 
ance of Ireland, and then the poetic prophecy shall be ful- 
filled in regard to her: 

— — " ' Great glorious and free, 
First flower of the earth and first gem of the sea. ' 

"I brought a great many messages. One of the first 
citizens of Belfast said to me: ' My name is Patrick Camp- 
bell; when you see Patrick Campbell in Brooklyn give him 
my love.' There he is. (Mr. Talmage pointed directly at 
Superintendent of Police Patrick Campbell, who sat in the 
audience, while the people laughed and applauded.) He 
said he wanted you to write to him sometimes. Well, 
then, there is Scotland, glorious Scotland. Other lands 
squeeze out now and then a poet, or a painter, or an orator, 
or a preacher; but Scotland, without any effort, turns out 



166 LIFE OF RET. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



Hugh Miller and Christopher North and James Simpson 
and Sir William Hamilton and John Knox, without half 
trying. Why, if you turn over a stone among the higtu 
lands of Scotland, you almost expect to see a Roderick 
Dhu bound oat from under it. 

"And then you ought to feel how a Scotchman, a genu- 
ine Scotchman, shakes hands. He just takes your hand 
and lays it across the palm of his hand, and then closes the 
fingers from one way, and then closes the thumb from the 
other way and puts on your hand the pressure of a great 
heart until your knuckles fairly crack, and then he gives 
you the up and down motion with the force of a steam- 
boat walking beam. When a Scotchman shakes hands 
with* you in Glasgow or Edinburgh, you know he wants to 
see you and is glad to see you. There is England! the 
great factory of the world! Smoke stacks, the organ pipes 
through which roll forth the grand march of the world's 
industries, while innumerable hammers beat time. And 
you run up to Nottingham and see the witchery of the lace 
they make there. And you run up to Henley and see the 
wonderful pottery, the brightest pictures of the world in- 
wrought into the plate and the vase and the mantels. And 
you go to Sheffield and see the poetry of steel, Mr. Rod- 
gers' great establishment, where he turns the trunks of four 
hundred elephants, every year, into the handles of knives, so 
that if you happen to lose your baggage on the way to 
Sheffield, you are very much in sympathy with those ele- 
phants that lose their trunks. And then you go over to 
Luton and see them making straw hats. And then you go 
to Birmingham and see the exquisite toys they manu- 
facture. 

" And then you go to Brighton, that wonderful English 
.watering place, from which our coming queen of Amen* 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE. D.D. 1G7 



can watering plaees has borrowed its name. And then you 
go to Torquay, where the princely and lordly men of 
England go to bathe off their rheumatism. And then you 
go to Rochdale to see the best friend of America in Eng- 
land — friend in war as well as friend in peace — gray-headed, 
big-hearted, trumpet -tongued John Bright. 

"But I don't care where you go in England, you get a 
message for America, a message of kindness. In the 
cities where I had the honor to speak, the presiding 
officer always sent his love to America, and I am here to- 
night to deliver that message, and in this, my first public 
utterance, and with my head still dizzy from the tossing of 
the sea, put your hand in their hand, and in the name of 
God declare the bans of an eternal marriage between Eng- 
land and the United States. 

"'What God hath joined together let no man put asun- 
der. ' There can be no division between England and 
America until we can successfully divide Shakspeare's trage- 
dies, and Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' and John Wesley's 
grave, and Wickcliffe's Bible, and the archangel's robe of a 
Christian resurrection. By all that is sacred in the cause 
of God and suffering humanity these two nations must go 
shoulder to shoulder, the two flags hang side by side, as 
to-night in this Tabernacle, marching on, no flag higher 
than those two flags, save the blood-stained banner of the 
cross over all, and let that wave over all other ensigns. 
Well, though I have gone through a great many of the 
cities, the city that lies nearest my heart is a city, which if 
I should write it on paper, I should have to begin with the 
letter B. 

"lean hardly tell you howl felt last Tuesday night 
when the 'Bothnia' came up through the Narrows, and on 
one side of us we had the Sandy Hook Lighthouse and on 



168 LIFE OF REY. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



the other side we had the rows of lamps of the Brighton 
and Manhattan Beach, and then my imagination looked 
f urther, and I saw the bright homes of Brooklyn, where 
there were so many friends waiting for us — friends with 
whom we hope to live and hope to die. And then on the 
right of us there lay beautiful Greenwood in the soft moon- 
light, the place where you and I expect to lie down for cool 
and refreshing slumber when the hard work of all our occu- 
pations and professions is ended forever. And then when 
the ' Bothnia ' dropped anchor at quarantine and we were 
waitiug for the morning, two boats came, one bearing a 
jolly committee from this church, to take me off and bring 
me ashore; the other steamer bringing the Government 
officers to take the European mails, and bringing to us the 
dear reporters. 

" What a stupid world this would be without reporters. 
Some of my friends are as afraid as death of reporters. I 
don't know why they should be afraid of them. They hover 
over us by day, and they watch our steps by night. There 
is no enterprise in all the earth among the newspaper press 
like the enterprise of the American press. On Monday 
morning you open the papers in London, and though the 
day before there were five hundred powerful sermons 
preached, you will not see a sketch of any of them. And 
then, the much criticised art of interviewing is purely Ameri- 
can. The Scotch and Irish and English reporter never gets 
much nearer a speaker than the reporters' desk, and has no 
opportunity to ask questions, while the American reporter 
comes up and surrounds him, covers him with affability, 
and cuts him off where he is too long, and stretches him 
out where he is too short, and sticks him with a pin if he is 
too windy. Oh, blessed be the reporters! When, on Tues- 
day night, eight or ten of them came on the ' Bothnia,' I 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 169 



folded my hands and said,. ' Home at last.' Oh, how good 
it is, my friends, to look into your faces. I heard it was 
said on this side of the water that I was having so good a time 
abroad I would not come back. Why, that would be as 
absurd as to think that because a man went to an evening 
party and had a good time with creams and almond nuts 
and pickled oysters, that therefore, at the close of the enter- 
tainment, he should go up to the host and say: 'My dear 
sir, I have enjoyed myself so much to-night I think I shall 
spend the rest of my life with you! ' 

"While there are many things on the other side 
of the water I like better than on this side of the 
water, there are more things on this side of the water I like 
better than on the other side of the water; and I hope 
I have come home in the highest style, in what might 
be called the highest style — a democrat. By that I don't 
• mean I am always going to vote the Democratic ticket. 
It will always depend upon which are the best men that 
the parties put up who we will vote for. 

" I received many messages from the other side of the 
water I was to bring here. I have not time now to deliver 
them. I will simply say I invited all the English people to 
come to America and see us, and I told them all to come to 
my house, but I warned them not to come all at once. Oh, 
my friends, we want to swing wide open the gates of this 
continent. Whether emigration to this country is helpful 
or damaging, all depends upon the kind of men and women 
that come. 

" The more good men and women you can get from Eng- 
land, Ireland and Scotland to come to this country, the 
better, and I have just now to tell you in my closing re- 
marks that there are tens of thousands of the best of Eng- 
lishmen who are ready to embark for America, and they are 



170 LIFE OF KEY. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



coming. We had a large number of them on the 6 Bothnia.' 
Let them come. Let us swing wider open the gates of our 
continent. Let us remember that the coming American is 
is to be an admixture of all foreign bloods. 

" In about twenty-five or fifty years the model American 
will step forth. He will have the strong brain of the Ger- 
man, the polished manners of the French, he artistic taste 
of the Italian, the staunch heart of the English, the high- 
toned piety of the Scotch, the lightning wit of the Irish, 
and when he steps forth, bone, muscle, nerve, brain inter- 
twined with the fibers of all nationalities, heaven and earth 
will break out in the crv, i Behold the man ! behold the 
American !' " 

The Chairman then announced that the proceedings 
would be brought to a close with the benediction by Rev. 
Hugh Smith Carpenter. Dr. Carpenter pronounced the 
benediction, and the vast audience began to disperse. Di\ 
Talmage took up a position in the centre aisle, and shook 
hands with hundreds of the people as they passed out. It 
was nearly eleven o'clock before all had departed, and the 
memorable reception was at an end. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



PHRENOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION" OF THE REV. DR. TALMAGE, 
BY PROF. L. N. FOWLER. 

Professor Fowler, the eminent phrenologist, has just 
furnished us with the following delineation of Dr. Talniage's 
character, which will, we doubt not, greatly interest the 
readers of his life. Based upon most careful examination 
and scientific induction, it supplies a key to the mental and 
moral constitution of the great preacher, and throws much 
light upon his ministry and life. 

" The organization of Dr. Talmage is most marked, men- 
tally and physically. Physiologically he is tall, spare and 
angular, having a predominance of the muscular, osseous 
and nervous systems. Though he has good lung-power and 
fair circulation, yet his ability to generate vitality is not 
equal to his inclination to work it off. 

"He is indebted to a powerful hereditary constitution for 
his ability to endure so much labor; all his vital forces are 
very active, hence he recruits quickly when exhausted and 
recovers speedily when ill, especially if he can secure plenty 
of fresh air. He has all the machinery for working, and is 
never more in his element than when his hands are full of 
work. When he can have his own way and follow his own 
plans, he labors with great ease and without friction. 

" His brain is somewhat above the average in size, which 
gives strength and comprehensiveness of mind, but is not 
so large as to be cumbersome or unwieldy. Having an 
abundance of both nerve and muscle, he is vigorous and 



1T2 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

positive in all his mental and physical operations. His 
head is peculiar in shape, being unusually high and very 
largely developed in the crown and top portions. It is 
rather long and quite narrow. 

" The executive forces of his mind are Combativeness, 
Self-esteem and Firmness, all of which are very large. He 
is never more in his element than when difficulties are to be 
overcome. Opposition is only so much fuel to the fire and 
keeps him going. He has great power in debate, criticism 
and sarcasm. He has perfect self-reliance, independence, 
consciousness of his own ability and willingness to take all 
the responsibilities of his own life and actions on himself. 
He has perfect presence of mind in times of danger, and 
can control himself better than most men. He is very de- 
termined in his mental operations, and it is next to impossi- 
ble for him to give up any course of life he has resolved to 
pursue. This power of will is so great as to influence his 
entire life. He has a very warm, social nature; all the 
loves amply developed, can enjoy married life highly, and 
takes a deep interest in children. He is almost extrava- 
gant in his affections, and will stand by his friends or prin- 
ciples to the last. 

" Few are prepared to make so many sacrifices for the sake 
of friends or objects of attachment as he is. He is re- 
markably domestic, and finds it difficult to change his homes, 
habits or uniform ways of doing things. 

" Continuity is unusually large, giving connectedness to 
thought and disposing him to carry out his ideas to the 
ultimate and to make the most of them. He is in danger 
of being absent-minded. The motional part of his nature 
comes from Hope, Spirituality and Veneration, which are 
all large. He is extravagant in his expectations, delights 
to dwell ob Uie future, has no desire to look back, but is 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 173 

always looking forward, planning ahead, and has an amount 
of enterprise equal to the largest operations. He is liable 
to project too large plans, and to be too sanguine and to 
expect too much. He never is so thoroughly disappointed 
as to give up. If he should fail, he would only start again 
with more zeal and vigor than he Iiad at first. Spirituality 
is large, which helps to expand his thoughts and feelings. 
He has, as it were, a third eye, and that a spiritual one. He 
possesses uncommon ability to represent his thoughts in a 
peculiarly spiritual style, and to enlarge upon his thoughts 
and feelings, and present his subject in all its bearings. 
Frequently when it is time to stop speaking or writing he 
has more to say than when he commenced. 

" He has much to think of and entertain himself with 
when all alone. 

"His faith in a spiritual life and existence is very great; 
and this, joined to his large Veneration, gives an elevated 
tone to his mind, which carries him far above the ordinary 
range of mental action. 

"With such a cast of mind, devoted to the subject of 
religion, he would be as familiar with all spiritual sub- 
jects and with thoughts about the Deity, and a future 
life, as another man would be with common affairs in active 
business. 

" Benevolence and Conscientiousness are both large. He 
has a desire to dwell on the right and wrong of subjects, 
and bears down hard on all forms of injustice; yet Benevo- 
lence gives a mellow and gentle tone to his mind, inclining 
him to sympathize with all kinds of misery, want, and in- 
firmity. It is no effort for him to make personal sacrifices, 
to relieve the needy, and his sympathies will be extended 
to all classes who deserve them. Ideality and Sublimity 
are both large, giving expansiveness to his mind, and en- 



174 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



abling him to magnify and embellish, and even to use the 
most extravagant language to present his thoughts and 
feelings. Sublimity is specially large, which leads him to 
contemplate manifestations of power, and disposes him to 
dwell with delight on the Divine attributes. He would 
en oy seeing an active volcano or an earthquake, or any 
awful phenomena of nature. Constructiveness being large, 
enables him to present his ideas in a varied form, and to 
show skill and ingenuity in making new arrangements and 
turning all his forces to the best account. 

" Imitation helps him to adapt himself to any condition in 
which he may be placed. Mirthf ulness is large, giving him 
a keen perception of the witty. He can present his ideas 
in the most concentrated, mirthful and ludicrous form, or 
reason in such a way as to present the subject in the most 
absurd light. 

"All his perceptive faculties are large, and hence he 
quickly observes all that is taking place around him. He 
recognizes forms, faces, proportions and the fitness and 
adaptation of parts, and has a good mechanical and archi- 
tectural eye. 

" He loves color in flowers, scenery, dress, decoration, and 
admires physical and artistic beauty. 

" Order and Calculation are large. He works by rule, 
dnd must have everything done according to some plan; 
hence he can do more work than many, because his plans 
are all laid down before he commences operations. He re- 
members places accurately, and can describe them cor- 
rectly; has a good general memory of events, historical 
facts, stories and illustrations, but memory of these things 
is greatly aided by his very large Comparison. He has 
quite an accurate sense of punctuality, and knows how to 
use every minute of time and how to make the most of it. 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 175 



" He is disposed to keep time in music and step in walk- 
ing. 

" Language is rather large, but is scarcely equal to his 
mental conceptions. When fairly roused up to a subject, 
he may show no want of language, but usually he has much 
more thought and feeling than command of language. This 
faculty, however, is greatly aided by his having but little 
restraining power and a great amount of expansiveness of 
mind, which gives liberty both of thought and expression. 

"Casualty is fully and definitely developed, enabling him 
to comprehend principles and lay foundations for argument; 
but his great intellectual power is Comparison, giving dis- 
crimination and capacity to contrast one thing with another. 
This faculty, joined to Ideality and Spirituality, enables 
him to fully present a subject, and to render it clear and 
distinct to his hearers. 

" He delights to have everything fitted to its place, every- 
thing handy and convenient, and he has great availability 
of intellect. 

"He can use his knowledge to the best advantage. Intui- 
tion is very large; he has great penetration, correctly un- 
derstands the workings of the mind, and loves to study 
simple truth. He is continually looking forward to the 
future, to know what is true connected with the Divine 
mind. 

" He has the peculiar power of expanding thought and 
feeling, or concentrating and condensing, so that the same 
idea can be enlarged into a long discourse or condensed into 
a short one. Cautiousness is large, giving a due degree of 
forethought, general prudence, and power to keep out of 
real difficulty, but it is not large enough to give timidity 
or irresolution. He may seem to be severe under the influ- 
ence of Combativeness and Destructiveness, or to be too 



176 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



dictatorial and determined under the influence of Self-esteem j 
and Firmness. Yet Destructiveness is not large; he is not \ 
cruel or revengeful, does not harbor hard feelings, and f 
would scarcely punish an enemy if he had him in his hands. 

" He is greatly opposed to shedding blood, going to war, j 
or causing unnecessary pain. Acquisitiveness and Secret- 
iveness are small; hence he is wanting in worldly wisdom. 
He needs money and property to carry out his large opera- 
tions, and that need may be a powerful stimulant fur him | 
to acquire property; but he is not naturally a good financier I 
or manager of money. Secretiveness being rather small, 
he is inclined to great openness and frankness, and there- 
fore liable to expose himself to unnecessary criticism. He 
is perfectly frank, candid, and open-hearted, and the oppo- 
site to a hypocrite or deceiver. More Acquisitiveness and 
Secretiveness would help to give a kind of wisdom which 
would be much to his advantage. 

" He has not much of the qualities of Approbativeness and 
Agreeableness, is no flatterer, and cannot cater or say and 
do things simply to please. He cares very little about the 
fashions. He is anxious to have power, and prefers to be 
respected rather than to be treated with familiarity. More 
Approbativeness would be of great service by way of 
giving ease and grace of manner, and a desire to suit him- 
self more to the ways and customs of society. 

" As he is now organized, he prefers to stand out alone by 
himself, and to be unlike anybody else. He has a most re- 
markable development of brain, and the indications of 
character are unique and peculiar to himself." 



CHAPTER XIV. 



m THE TABERHACLE's RUItfS — A GRAPHIC STORY OF THB 
BURNING OF REV. DR. TALMAGE'S CHURCH. 

For the second time in its history the Brooklyn Taber- 
nacle was destroyed by fire, on Sunday morning, October 
13, 1889, and Rev. Dr. Talmage's vast congregation waa 
again without a place of worship. Notwithstanding this 
calamity, Dr. Talmage has begun work again and appeals 
to the people of Christendom to help him build a church 
still larger and grander than the old Tabernacle. 

It was during a heavy rain and wind that the flames 
swept through the famous structure with a force and head' 
way which not only bade defiance to the best efforts of the 
valiant firemen, but caused damage to a score of dwellings 
in the path of the wind. Against great odds and almost 
insurmountable difficulties, the firemen saved a dozen 
houses that were blistered by the heat and were the target 
of giant firebrands and an avalanche of sparks. The oc- 
cupants of these homes were rudely awakened from their 
slumbers and forced to flee for safety in the dead of night, 
in many cases without their clothing. When the dawn lit 
up the scene only two trembling and tottering walls, that 
might fall at any moment, and a great heap of charred and 
smoking ruins remained of what had been one of the most 
famous churches in the United States. 

The fire was discovered soon after 2:30 o'clock in the 
morning by Policeman Jacob Van Wagoner, who, from his 
post on Flatbush avenue, saw clouds of smoke and occa- 



1?8 LIFE OF REV. T. BE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

sional jets of flame breaking through the great cathedral 
window on the eastern side of the church, near the Third 
avenue entrance. He ran to the engine-house on State 
street and gave the alarm ; the dents of his club on the 
heavy door will remain there as long as the e7igine-house 
stands. Three minutes later the fire company was laying a 
line of hose from the nearest hydrant to the burning church. 
Foreman Dooley saw at a glance that its interior was al- 
most a solid mass of flame, and that the chances of saving 
it were slim indeed. He ordered Assistant Foreman Frank 
Duffy to sound a third alarm, and soon fire-engines and 
hose-carts were clattering into Schermcrhorn street from 
every direction. The rain was pouring down heavily and 
the work of the firemen was cold and cheerless. Chief 
Nevins was one of the first to arrive and directed the move- 
ments of the men, who soon had a dozen streams of water 
playing upon the flames. 

HARD WORK FOR THE FIREMEN". 

The Tabernacle stood on the south side of Schermerhorn 
street, near Third avenue. A stiff breeze blew from the 
east, driving the intense heat full into the firemen's faces, 
greatly impeding their work, and rendering their positions 
in front of the burning structure almost intolerable. Op- 
posite the Third avenue entrance, in front of a newly- 
finished dwelling, was a large pile of mortar, and the fire- 
men stationed there were only able to hold their ground 
by standing knee-deep in the mortar, packing it closely 
about their rubber boots. Meanwhile the fire, the heat of 
which appeared at that time to be to the right of the nave 
and around the platform, progressed with great rapidity, 
until it embraced the library on the right and the lecture- 



LIFE OP REV. T. BE WtTT TAtMAGE, D.D. 179 



! room on the left. Great tongues of flame leaped upward 
from the slated roof on all sides, lighting up the dull sky 

! and attracting attention in all parts of Brooklyn. Neither the 
heavy rain nor the torrents of water from the lines of hose 
availed to stay the conflagration, and the roof fell in soon 
after 3 o'clock. It was soon followed by the eastern wall. 

I Almost from the start the burning Tabernacle was a 
menace to the homes and safety of the citizens living on 
either side and across the street. Such of those as were not 
already aroused were speedily apprised of the impending 
danger and warned to vacate their houses. The writer, 
who was on the scene immediately after the alarm was 
given and before the arrival of the firemen, assisted in the 
work of awakening the people. In several of the homes 
there was a short-lived panic. Escape from the front was 
impossible. Such of the residents as had the temerity to 
open their front doors were met by a shower of sparks and 
a heat like that when the door of a red-hot furnace is 
opened. The exposed woodwork of their homes was 
scorched and blistered, and nearly every window was broken. 
In some cases the glass was not knocked out, but shattered 
and cracked in a thousand closely intersected veins, and 
almost fused by the terrible heat. 

FIRE IN THE NEIGHBORING HOUSES. 

About 3:30 o'clock the houses on each side of the church 
were also in flames. Those on the opposite side were saved 
from extensive damage. The firemen diverted their atten- 
tion from the church, when it became evident that no 
power could save it from destruction, to the surrounding 
residences. About 4:30 o'clock the fire was under control 
and all danger to a great extent over. Streams were kept 



180 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



playing upon the ruins, however, during the greater part oi 
the day. 

The house adjoining the church on the east, No. 353 
Schermerhorn street, is a three-story and basement frame 
structure, owned and occupied by J. Iff. Crouch. His 
family consists of fire persons, including a servant. The 
house was completely gutted, and all its occupants had a 
narrow escape. 

" I was sleeping with my wife on the first floor," said 
Mr. Crouch, ce when I was awakened by some one pounding 
on my door. I smelled the smoke and at once aroused my 
family. We only got out with extreme difficulty. The roof 
was the first part to catch fire, and luckily no one occupied 
the top floor. We did not have time to finish dressing be- 
fore we had to fly for our lives. " 

The house west of the church, No. 337, is a three-story 
brick. Its owner is Mr. Ames, who had not yet returned 
from Connecticut, where he passed the Summer with his 
family ; last week, however, his aged mother, ninety years 
old, returned with two servants to Brooklyn, and were in 
the house Saturday night. This house was ruined from 
cellar to roof. Old Mrs. Ames was carried out by firemen 
in a chair, and taken to a house on Livingston street. The 
next house, of similar construction, , ; s owned by Mrs. Mon- 
roe, and occupied by Dr. Halleck. About $1,200 damage, 
the doctor states, has been done there. To reach the burn- 
ing church the firemen pfaced two lines of hose through his 
basement, from the front door through a rear window. 
Dr. Halleck said he was awakened from his sleep and saw 
through his bedroom window what appeared like the in- 
terior of a fiery furnace. His room was so brilliantly 
lighted that he could see to pick up a pin from the floor. 
Before he had time to dress the window sash caught fire, 



LIFE OP REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 181 

frnd soon the bedding followed suit. The room rapidly 
filled with smoke. He took his whole family, none of them 
.Tilly dressed, to the residence of Dr. Wackerhagen, on the 
same street. The two upper floors'of his home were flooded, 
and the carpets and furniture and two fine microscopes, 
worth $450, ruined. 

BUT PEW PEOPLE PRESENT. 

Not a very large crowd witnessed the destruction of the 
cnurch. The time of its occurrence and the bad weather 
both had the effect of keeping the people away. There 
were not more than a few hundred spectators in the sur- 
rounding streets at any time. Police Captain Earle was 
early at the scene with a platoon of men, but their work 
was more to assist the firemen than to restrain the crowd. 
About 4 o'clock Dr. Talmage, who had been notified of the 
fire by messenger, arrived in a cab, and remained until the 
church was in ruins. 

The rear wall of the edifice fell about 7 o'clock. The fire 
in the body of the church had been practically extinguished 
at that time, and a score of firemen were working within 
its walls. The falling pile of brick and stone missed six 
of them by barely three feet. All day vast crowds visited 
the place. Policemen kept the street in front of the church 
closed, for the remaining walls were liable to fall at any 
moment. Hundreds of the congregation first learned of 
the fire when they started for their customary Sunday 
morning worship and were prevented by the police from 
entering Schermerhorn street. The firemen were also 
present all day. The great cathedral window in front, %2 
by 40 feet, with the brick arch around it, was all that re- 
mained of the ornate and pillared front. The small entrance 



182 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



to the west was also standing. It led into the lecture-room, 
which was the least damaged part of the church, and the 
only portion over which a roof yet remains. Some china* 
ware packed in this room was found unbroken, and a 
piano in one corner, although now incapable of producing 
sound, appears externally but little damaged. Piles of 
blackened ruins and brick cover the platform. Not a ves- 
tige remains of the magnificent thirty-five thousand dollar 
organ. Scattered through the smoking embers were the re- 
mains of half-burned hymnals and church books. The 
library, which consisted of many hundred volumes, is en- 
tirely wiped out. 

WAS IT CAUSED BY ELECTRICITY ? 

The fire apparently raged fiercest in the northern end oi 
the church, in that part of the nave nearest the altar. It 
is on this side that the electric wires enter the church, 
which was lighted by 600 incandescent Edison lamps. 
The dynamo which operates them is at the headquarters of 
the Edison Company on Pearl street. These had only 
been placed in position recently, and the work was not com- 
pleted until Saturday, when Foreman Clark, of the Edison 
Company, worked with a number of men in the church all 
day. They finished their labors about 3 o'clock. 

What was the cause of the fire ? Was it, as before, caused 
by a defective flue, or did an electric wire or a bolt of 
lightning start the flames ? These were questions in every- 
body's mouth. The last man in the church Saturday 
night was Sexton James E. Dey. 

" I left the church/' said Mr. Dey, "about 6:30 o'clock 
Saturday night. I went through the entire building, as 
was my custom, seeing that all the lights were out and that 
everything was all right. Not a single gas jet was burning 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 183 



when I left. I never keep a light in the church over 
night. 93 

" Were the furnaces burning ?" 

" There were six furnaces in the cellar, and all were out 
except the one under the lecture-room, in which I had 
started a small fire to take the chill off the church. I did 
not put in over a peck of coal. This furnace heats only the 
lecture-room^ which is the part of the church that suffered 
least. That shows a defective flue could not have been the 
origin, or anything else connected with the furnaces. At 
6 o'clock I went around with Mr. Clark, the electric-light 
man, while he closed all the switches and shut off all the 
electric currents from the building. 

"I saw the fire almost as soon as it started. The light 
of the flames shone directly in my bedroom window, and I 
was on the ground before 3 o'clock. Soon after that the 
roof fell in, but before then there were frequent crashes 
when sections of slate fell from the sloping sides of the 
roof. One fireman was hit by a piece of slate, but luckily 
escaped with a mere scratch. After the roof fell in, but 
before the rafters fell, the burning church presented one 
of the most magnificent sights I ever saw. Through the 
darkness and the falling rain it looked as though the roof 
were still there, illuminated by thousands of lanterns. The 
contrast between the streaks of bright light and the black 
skv was something wonderful. Onlv the right side of the 
church was burning when I arrived, although then the roof 
was burned through, 

"I am positive that there was no fire or light anywhere 
but in the furnace I spoke of under the lecture-room. I am 
also positive that the electric currents were all shut off. 
Shortly after 2 o'clock there was a tremendous flash ol 
lightning, according to a dozen people with whom 1 talked 



184: LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

this morning. That may have struck the church, although 
no crash of thunder accompanied that particular flash." 

THE HISTOET OF THE TABERKACLE. 

The Brooklyn Tabernacle was probably the most famous 
Protestant church in America, next to Trinity in this city. 
It was built in 1873 and cost over $175,000. The organ 
was one of the largest and best in the world, built by 
George Jardine & Son. Its cost, $35,000, was borne by the 
ladies of the congregation. It included a chime of bells, 
trumpet and various other novel appliances. 

The corner-stone of the church was laid June 7, 1873, 
the ceremony being performed by the late Dr. S. Irenaeus 
Prime. Dr. Talmage also delivered an address, declaring 
that the structure would ever be a stronghold against 
rationalism. The corner-stone bore the inscription : 

" Brooklyn Tabernacle, built 1870 ; destroyed by fire 
December 22, 1872 ; rebuilt 1873/' 

The customary box containing the Bible, secular and re- 
ligious journals and coins, was deposited under the stone. 
The building was completed in March, 1874, and waa 
dedicated March 22. It was the largest Protestant church 
building in the country, capable of seating 2,600 people. 
It was built on the site of the old Tabernacle, and covered 
150 by 112 feet. The organ was in a recess in the rear of 
the church, 60 feet in width. Prior to the recent intro- 
duction of the Edison lamps the church was lighted by a 
thousand gas jets* A deep gallery extended around three 
sides of the church. The edifice was constructed of brick 
and stone. It was of the Gothic style of architecture, and 
generally conceded to be one of the most elegant and at- 
tractive churches in the country, A notable event in its 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 185 

history was the grand jubilee concert of March 31, 1874, 
when Mme. Pauline Lucca, Gilmore's band and Cornetist 
Arbuckle appeared. 

The old Brooklyn Tabernacle was dedicated Sept. 24, 
1870, and destroyed by fire Dec. 22, 1872. The cause was 
a defective flue. It was a much smaller structure than the 
edifice just burned, circular in form, with five main en- 
trances, a small tower and a parapet. Several of the fire- 
men who worked on the burning building were also on duty 
at the previous fire. Curiously enough, Policeman John 
Baird, a veteran Brooklyn officer, who was on duty at the 
fire, acted in the same capacity when the old church was 
burned. 

" I remember the occasion well," said he. " It was a cold, 
raw day, and the firemen labored against tremendous diffi- 
culties. The water froze in the hydrants and actually hung 
in icicles from the windows and walls of the burning church. 
That fire also occurred on a Sunday morning, about 10 
o'clock." 

DR. TALMAGE GETS TO WORK. 

Dr. Talmage was not present during the afternoon, but 
was at his home, No. 1 South Oxford street, in earnest con- 
sultation with his church lieutenants, evolving plans for im- 
mediate and future action. The following resolutions were 
adopted: 

We the trustees of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, assembled 
Sabbath, Oct. 13, at the house of our pastor, adopt the 
following: 

Resolved, That we bow in humble submission to the 
Providence which this morning removed our beloved 
church, and while we cannot fully understand the meaning 
of that Providence we have faith that there is kindness as 
well as severity in the stroke, 



t86 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



Resolved, That if God and the people will help us we pro- 
ceed immediately to rebuild, and that we rear a structure 
large enough to meet the demands of our congregation, 
locality and style of building to be indicated by the amount 
of contributions made. 

Resolved, That our hearty thanks be rendered to the 
owners of public buildings who have offered their audi- 
toriums for the use of our congregation, and to all those 
who have given us their sympathy in this time of trial. 

Resolved, That Alexander McLean, E. H. Branch, Jno. 
Wood, F. M. Lawrence be appointed a committee to secure 
a building for Sabbath morning and evening services. 

Many were the offers received from sister churches and 
theatre managers proffering the use of their auditoriums 
for service, or, as Dr. Talmage said himself : 

" The kindness shown us in our hour of need is most 
manifest. Nearly every auditorium within a radius of three 
miles has been tendered us, but the committee has finally 
decided to take the Academy of Music, and we shall hold 
service there at the usual hours on Sunday next." 

Among the many offers was one from the Eev. Lyman 
Abbott, Plymouth Church, a former classmate of Dr. Tal- 
mage. It was couched as follows : 

Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, Oct. 13. 
My Dear Dr. Talmage : The Board of Deacons of Ply- 
mouth Church authorize me to tender to your people the 
use of our church edifice on Sunday evenings until your 
permanent arrangements for your future church have been 
made. It is quite at your service and theirs for as long a 
period as you may desire. I am sure that I need net add 
that 1 cordially unite with them and that I am sure that 
their action represents the sentiment and feeling that Ply- 
mouth Church bears to the Tabernacle in this calamity 
which has befallen them* Your old friend, 

Lymast Abbott. 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 187 



AX APPEAL TO CHRISTENDOM. 

Dr. Talmage next dictated the following appeal : 

To the People-^ 

By a sudden calamity we are without a church. Th<* 
building associated with so much that is dear to us is in 
ashes. In behalf of my stricken congregation I make 
appeal for help, as our church has never confined its work 
to this locality. Our church has never been sufficient 
either in size or appointments for the people who come. 
We want to build something w r orthy of our city and worthy 
of the cause of God. We want $100,000, which, added to 
the insurance will build what is needed. I make appeal 
to all our friends throughout Christendom, to all denom- 
inations, to all creeds and those of no creed at all, to come 
to our assistance. 

I ask all readers of my sermons the world over to con- 
tribute as far as their means will allow. What we do as a 
Church depends upon the immediate response made to this 
call. I was on the eve of my departure for a brief visit to 
the Holy Land, that I might be better prepared for my work 
here but that visit must be postponed. I cannot leave 
until something is done to decide our future. May the 
God who has our destiny as individuals and churches in his 
hand appear for our deliverance. 

Response to this appeal to the people may be sent to me, 
"Brooklyn, N. Y.," and I will with my own hands, ac- 
knowledge the receipt thereof. 

T. De Witt Talmage. 

HISTOEY REPEATING ITSELF. 

"History has almost repeated itself, 5 ' said the reverend 
doctor sadly, " for it was just seventeen years ago, and 
upon a Sabbath morning, that we had a similar visitation 
of fire. Myself and family, who had been alarmed, stood 
in the glass cupola surmounting the house, and saw oui 
beloved Sabbath home moulder away, We could distin- 



188 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

guish every arch, beam and rafter, and see them crumble 
beneath the cruel flames. Shortly after I visited the 
scene myself, and it made my heart sad. The subject of 
my sermon was to have been, 6 Looking unto J esus, the 
Author of Our Faith."' 

Within two weeks a new site had been purchased for a 
new building, plans had been adopted, and Dr. Talmage 
started on his proposed trip for the Holy Land to procure 
material for his new work, " The Life of Christ." 



CHAPTER XV. 



DEATH OF DR. TALMAGE IN WASHINGTON, D. 0., APRIL 12, 

1902. 

The Eev. Dr. T. De Witt Talmage died at his home in 
Washington, at 9.25 P. M., April 12, 1902. He was sev- 
enty years old. 

Dr. Talmage had been ill for some weeks and was in 
a state of complete unconsciousness for more than sixty 
hours. 

The immediate cause of death was heart complications 
induced by a severe attack of grip. 

Until he went South in February, Dr. Talmage was in 
his usual health. While in the City of Mexico he was at- 
tacked by grip early in March and was quite ill for two 
weeks. When he returned home the long journey made him 
worse. He arrived in Washington on March 24 and went 
to his bed. 

He had suffered from throat trouble for many years, 
and that trouble became acute, and was complicated with a 
weak and disturbed action of his heart. He gradually 
failed until a few days ago the physicians announced that 
he could not recover. 

his daughter's marriage. 

His daughter, Miss Maude Talmage. was married April 
9 to Clarence Wyckoff, of Ithaca. It had been planned 
to make this wedding a brilliant function and nearly 1,500 
invitations were prepared. Distinguished clergymen were 



190 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALLAGE, D.D. 



to assist Dr. Talmage in marrying his daughter, but his 
illness made that impossible and the wedding took place 
at the Talmage home in the presence of none but the im- 
mediate friends of the family. 

Dr. Talmage never knew that his daughter had been mar- 
ried. He was unconscious on the day of the wedding and 
remained so up to the time of his death. 

The last rational words uttered by Dr. Talmage were* on 
the day preceding the marriage of his daughter, when he 
said: "Of course, I know you, Maude." 

At Dr. Talmage's deathbed, besides his wife, were these 
members of his family: The Bev. Frank De Witt Tal- 
mage, of Chicago ; Mrs. Warren G. Smith and Mrs. Daniel 
Mangam, of Brooklyn; Mrs. Allan T. Donnau, of Rich- 
mond; Mrs. Clarence Wyckoff and Miss Talmage. 

BURIAL IN BROOKLYN. 

The family have decided to have the body taken to the 
Church of the Covenant, in Brooklyn, where services will 
be held, after which the interment will be made in the 
family plot in Greenwood Cemetery. 

Dr. Talmage for the last four or five years had done no 
active ministerial work in Washington, although he wrote a 
sermon every week which was published in many news- 
papers throughout the country on Monday mornings. 

He was a familiar figure at social and educational gath- 
erings in this city. Until his trip South it was his custom 
to take a daily walk on Pennsylvania avenue, from Fif- 
teenth street to the Capitol and back. He was known by 
sight to nearly everybody in Washington, and invari- 
ably he was stopped many times in the course of his stroll 
by people who wanted to shake hands with him. 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 191 

Dr. Talmage was pastor of the Four-and-a-Half Street 
Presbyterian Church for a short period when President and 
Mrs. Cleveland were attendants. 

HIS FAME AS A PREACHER AND LECTURER. 

When the congregation of the Brooklyn Tabernacle cele- 
brated in May, 1894, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 
pastorate of the Eev. Dr. Thomas De Witt Talmage it was 
said that the echo of the event was world-wide. 

Dr. Talmage was a type by himself. His sermons were 
unique. He displayed remarkable energy in handling re- 
. ligious topics, which won the admiration of those who dif- 
fered with him on matters of grave moment. His vigor- 
ous gesticulations and dramatic delivery greatly impressed 
his audiences. These qualities provoked from one of his 
critics the epigram that "Dr. Talmage was the only man 
in New York who was permitted to give a dramatic per- 
formance on Sunday." 

He was a man of untiring vitality. He was constantly 
moving about. In his pulpit he walked back and forth 
while preaching. He said he could always think better 
while walking. He possessed a robust, erect figure, his fea- 
tures were strong and clear-cut and his presence magnetic. 

He outlined on January 28, 1894, many notable incidents 
in his career. 

"I was born on January 27, 1832, at Bound Brook, 
X. J.," he said, "and I was the youngest of twelve children. 
My father belonged to the aristocracy of hard knuckles, 
and it may easily be imagined my parents had a hard 
struggle to provide for, train and educate so large a fam- 
ily. My earliest preference was for the law, for which I 
studied for a year after graduating from the University 



192 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALLAGE, D.XX 



of Xew York. My parents were anxious that I should be- 
come a preacher of the gospel, so I entered a theological 
seminary at New Brunswick, and after the usual course 
became a licentiate. My first charge was at Belleville. 
X. J., where I labored for about three years. 

HIS ELOQUENCE DISCOVERED. 

It was while at Belleville that his eloquence turned at- 
tention to him. and he accepted a call to the Dutch Ke- 
formed Church in Syracuse, where he was pastor from 1859 
to 1862. In the latter year he was called to the Second 
Eeformed Church of Philadelphia. His work in Brooklyn 
began in 1869, when he became pastor of the Second Pres- 
byterian Church, and a year later his congregation erected 
the first "Brooklyn Tabernacle." This was destroyed by 
fire on December 22. 1872. but by indefatigable labor Dr. 
Talmage succeeded in building a new Tabernacle, which 
was dedicated on January 22, 1874, His congregation 
grew to be the largest of any Protestant denomination in 
the United States and probably the largest in any country. 

In the summer of 1885 Dr Talmage visited England 
and the Continent and preached in all the principal cities 
abroad. In London he addressed vast congregations. He 
quickly became as popular abroad as he was at home. His 
career as a lecturer began forty-two years ago and there 
was a constantly increasing demand, but he limited his 
lectures to about fifty each year, never allowing his tours 
to interfere with his pastoral work. His least guarantee 
for a lecture was $500, and the average amount paid to 
him was $1,000. While Dr. Talmage was endeavoring to 
raise money for the rebuilding of the Tabernacle, 
which had been burned for the third time, the 



UFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 193 



question was raised in some quarters why Dr. Talmage 
himself and his wealthy congregation did not confine the 
building fund to themselves instead of appealing for out- 
side assistance. It was reputed that he was worth $250,- 
000. He was asked to state approximately the aggregate of 
his earnings from his lectures and published sermons alone. 

"All I can say about that is that the Lord has been very 
good to me," he replied. 

He was once offered $150,000 for a series of lectures, 
but declined. During the last years of his pastorate in the 
Brooklyn Tabernacle he never received his salary of $10,000 
annually. In addition to his labors as pastor and lec- 
turer, he was the author of many books, which netted him 
a large sum. Of these, "Crumbs Swept Up," "Sports That 
Kill," "Abominations of Modern Society," "Shots on Sun- 
dry Targets," "Life of Christ" and "The Pathway of Life" 
are most widely known. Of the last-named work more than 
400,000 copies were sold. 

Dr. Talmage resigned from the Brooklyn Tabernacle 
and became associated with the First Presbyterian Church 
in Washington. Internal dissensions caused him to resign 
his charge and he became the editor of the Christian Her- 
ald. He is survived by his widow, who was his third 
wife, two daughters and a son. 

CHARACTERISTIC UTTERANCES. 

Here follow some of the most striking utterances of Dr. 
Talmage. He was fearful at times that he might be ac- 
cused of plagiarism. In an interview published twelve 
years ago he said : 

"I am afraid to preach any old sermon of my own lest 
I be accused of stealing it. I remember once when I waa 



19-1 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



far from well and unable to prepare a sermon I preached 
an old one which I had delivered a long time before. It 
was reported and published as usual, and within a few days 
there came to me letters from various quarters, a dozen 
in all. accusing me of having cribbed the discourse on the 
ground that several writers had heard it delivered in their 
own towns within a few months past by their own pastors." 

"If/ 3 he said, upon one occasion, "I were compelled to re- 
duce the Bible to one word it should be 'Mercy. 3 That 
is true religion. The world's idea is if a man goes wrong: 
'Out with him ! Banish him from all decent society ! 
Help him roll down hill ! Give him a kick ! Away with 
him ! If a. woman goes wrong there is no mercy for her. 
If ^she repents in sackcloth and ashes, still no mercy for her. 
She is an outcast forever, whose presence is contamination. 
Abandon her to perdition. If she tries to swim ashore, 
stone her off. If she tries to rise, push her down. If 
she gets the tips of her fingers on the rock, bring your 
boot heels to bear and crush her fingers. That is conven- 
tional society's way, but it is not true religion's way. It 
is not God's way. It is not the way of mercy.*' 
Speaking of the '•Christian Sabbath." he said : 
"The human body is a seven-day clock. If it is not 
wound up the weights will run down and the whole thing 
will collapse. The fact that one day of the week ought to 
be kept free from work has been demonstrated physiolog- 
ically, anatomicallv and scripturally. There is an impres- 
sion in its favor so universal that I believe it to be a divine 
impression, There is no nation that needs a day of rest so 
much as ours. We perpetually drive too fast. The work 
we ought to do in ten years we do in five and sometimes in 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



i95 



Once when a certain newspaper had been bitterly at- 
tacking him he said to one who deplored the attacks : 

"I never read anything in the way of an attack upon me, 
I simply have nothing to do with such tilings. I have a 
habit of never seeing anything disagreeable in letters or 
in newspapers. I read newspapers in bulk, as it were. I 
put together what I read and know what is going on in 
the world. That which is unpleasant to read — I don't read. 
Newspapers generally treat me so generously and kindly 
that I have not an atom of fault to find/' 

Eegarding the marriage laws, he said : 

"I think the more emphasis Ave place upon the legal char- 
acter of marriage the better. If there is any letting up on 
that point the thoughtless will rush into the relation more 
recklessly than ever. I think if people ever get the notion 
that marriage is an accommodation train and that they can 
get off at any station, they will get aboard with very little 
thought, sit down beside some fair creature for an hour or 
so, and when they reach a convenient stopping place, will 
leave the train. It is better to have it understood that 
marriage is a through vestibuled express; if you get on 
board you must stay on board : this train runs at sixty 
miles an hour and makes no stops at way stations." 

"Women are sometimes bargained away to dissolute 
princes or disreputable lordlings, or worthless rich men 
whom you would kick out of your house. Do society and 
the Church sufficiently frown upon such relations? Or 
do they, by their attitude, teach the young that the mere 
ceremony of marriage makes holy a relation which is es- 
sentially unholy? Of course, there can be no benediction 
upon perjury. But the anathemas of society and the 



196 LIFE OF EEV. T. DE WITT TAOIAGE, D.D. 



Church cannot be too severe upon such marriages as we hear 
of now and then." 

"If infidelity and atheism succeed," lie wrote, "they will 
dynamite the world. Let them hare their way and the 
world will be a house with just three rooms — one a mad- 
house, another a lazzaretto, the other a pandemonium. In 
the theatre the tragedy comes first, the farce afterward; 
but in this infidel drama of death the farce comes first, the 
tragedy afterward. And in the former atheists laugh and 
mock, but in the latter God will laugh and mock." 

As an example of Dr. Talmage's "word painting,'' the 
following extract describing the bells and chimes of Mos- 
cow may be given : 

"I climbed up among the bells, and then, as I reached 
the top all the bells underneath me began to ring, and they 
were joined by the bells of fourteen hundred towers and 
domes and turrets. Some of the bells sent out a faint tinkle 
of sound, a sweet tintinnabulation that seemed to bubble in 
the air, and others thundered forth boom after boom, boom 
after boom, until it seemed to shake the earth and fill the 
heavens— sounds so weird, so sweet, so awful, so grand, so 
charming, so tremendous, so soft, so rippling, so reverberat- 
ing — and they seemed to wreathe and whirl and rise and 
sink and burst and roll and mount and die, 

"When Napoleon saw Moscow burn it could not have 
been more brilliant than when I saw all the fourteen hun- 
dred turrets aflame with the sunset, roofs of gold and walls 
of malachite and pillars of porphyry and balustrades of 
mosaie and visions of lapus lazuli and architecture of all 
eolors, mingling the brown of autumnal forests and the blue 
of summer heavens and the conflagration of morning skies 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 197 



and the green of rich meadows and the foam of tossing 
seas/' 

STRIKING IXCIDEXTS IX CAREER OF DR. TALMAGE. 

The greatest of modern pulpit orators of the emotional 
school passed away with the Eev. Dr. T. De Witt Talmage. 
During the thirty years that he was famous he had no equal 
in his own peculiar field. Even the great Spurgeon never 
had such a widespread influence or became personally 
known to so many people as Dr. Talmage. 

He was often compared with Henry Ward Beecher, 
chiefly because both had pastorates in Brooklyn, and be- 
cause, throughout the whole United States no other clergy- 
men could compare with them as preachers, in the number 
of people they attracted, 

It is not possible to compare them because they were so 
utterly unlike. Mr. Beecher was a ripe scholar, a deep 
theologian, a profound logician, whose rhetoric was as pol- 
ished as his personality. Dr. Talmage was a big, raw- 
boned man, all angles and energy, who dealt in nothing 
but superlatives, who loved the dramatic and unexpected 
effects, who descended to the comic and grotesque as readily 
as he ascended to the wildest flights, who cared for neither 
J precedents nor conventions — an eccentric, profoundly hu- 
] nan man, with a matchless gift of oratory. 

KO SUPERIOR AS A WORD PAINTER. 

As a word painter he probably neve 2 had a superior, and 
while he lacked grace, ease and rep3se in his delivery he 
had a terrific earnestness that made his spoken words in- 
finitely more effective than his written ones. And yet 
it is estimated that more than 10,000,000 of persons — some 



198 LITE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

more than double the number — read his weekly sermons, 
which were published in more than 3,000 newspapers. 

It must not be supposed that Dr. Talmage was lacking in 
scholarship or that he was not a student, but he believed 
more could be gained by appealing to the emotions than to 
the reason, and results were obtained much more quickly. 

He was a prodigious worker. Twenty volumes of his 
sermons, representing about half of those he preached, have 
been published, and many other books have come from him, 
so that in all he leaves about fifty volumes. He was in 
great demand as a lecturer, but he was at his best in the 
pulpit — that is, his own pulpit, for the casual ones did not 
give him space enough to move about. Dr. Talmage 
wanted plenty of room when he preached. He was more 
than six feet tall, and his arms were very long. 

His sermons were regularly translated and published into 
German, French and Swedish. Many of them are to be 
found in Eussian and other languages. When Dr. Talmage 
was in Athens several years ago, Queen Olga remarked to 
him that she had read some of his sermons in a local news- 
paper there. 

Dr. Talmage never wanted rest, but he liked recreation, 
and he found it in travel. He made many trips abroad, 
and few men knew the United States and Europe as well 
as he. He preached everywhere. When he made his trip 
around the world about eight years ago, he preached in 
almost every land except South America. Everywhere 
crowds thronged to h ar him, 

In New York and iTew Zealand the announcement that 
Dr. Talmage would preach was sufficient to fill the largest 
auditoriums. 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 199 



WHY HE NEVER FOUGHT BACK. 

His first charge was the Dutch Reformed Church, of 
Belleville, N. J. His trial sermon was near to being a fail- 
ure, because a big blue bottle fly sought sanctuary in his 
throat. For a few seconds the preacher didn't know 
whether to eject the intruder or retire. He swiftly decided 
to swallow the fly, and went on. 

Dr. Talmage used often to relate that story when people 
asked him why he did not fight back when he was attacked. 
He would say that he preferred to swallow the fly. 

From Belleville the young clergyman went to Syracuse, 
where he first began to attract attention, and which re- 
sulted in his taking a pastorate in Philadelphia. His fame 
grew rapidly in the seven years that he preached there. 
The remarkable vividness of his language, his force, his 
earnestness and his evangelical success, together with his 
eccentricities in the pulpit, attracted great congregations. 

He was called to Brooklyn in 1869, to take charge of a 
little church that had struggled valiantly for existence. 
Within a few months crowds were almost fighting for the 
privilege of hearing him. He was a plain gospel preacher, 
pure and simple, one of the few college and seminary- 
bred ministers who desired that distinction. 

INFLUENCE INCREASED WITH AGE. 

As Jie grew in years, Dr. Talmage's language grew more 
exuberant and extravagant. He was mercilessly attacked, 
but his power and his influence increased steadily. When 
he came to New York the big Academy of Music could not 
hold half the people who thronged to hear him. 

When Dr. Talmage celebrated his silver jubilee in Brook- 



.200 LIFE 01 RE?. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

lyn, distinguished clergymen of all denominations and the 
most prominent men in Brooklyn, including Charles A. 
Schieren, then Mayor, Benjamin F. Tracy and others, did 
him honor in speeches, and men of prominence in this coun- 
try and abroad sent messages. Over the stage was a banner 
which read: "The Tabernacle his pulpit; the world his 
audience." 

It was at this jubilee celebration that the Eev. Dr. Gregg, 
of Brooklyn, said : 

"There is only one Dr. Talmage. He lives among us 
unique. There is one man in America who can draw, hold 
and thrill twice every Sabbath the year around an audience 
of 8,000. There is but one man on the globe that can 
preach the Gospel every week through the press to 25,000,- 
000. There is only one man who, in taking a trip around 
the world, can say: 'I am making a series of pastoral 
calls/ » 

HAD A WONDERFUL MEMORY. 

Almost to the day of his death he continued to write a 
vast amount of matter for publication. Whether or not he 
preached a sermon he always prepared it in the same way, 
dictating it to a stenographer while he walked up and down 
;th# room. He revised the copy carefully. He never 
: seemed to memorize it, and yet so wonderful was his mem- 
ory that when he entered the pulpit he could repeat it 
word for word. 

It is easy enough to reproduce what Dr. Talmage said, 
but it is impossible to convey to those who have not seen 
•him the way in which he said it. One o£«what is considered 
his finest things is here presented. This is his peroration 
of the sermon that he called "Recognition in Heaven/' 



LITE OF REV. T. DE [WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 201 

"And so I see the Christian soul coming down the river 
of death, and he steps into the river and the water cornea to 
his ankles and he says ; 

" 'Lord J esus, is this death V 

"'No/ says Christ, 'this is not death/ 

"And he wades still deeper down into the waters until the 
flow comes to the knee, and he says: 'Lord Jesus, teU 
me, tell me, is this death T And Christ says: 'No, no., 
this is not death/ 

"And he wades still further until the water comes to- 
the girdle and the soul says, 'Lord Jesus, is this death?' 
'No/ says Christ, 'this is not death/ 

"And deeper in wades the soul until the billows strike- 
the lip and the departing one cries, 'Lord Jesus, is this 
death T 

"And when Christ has lifted the soul upon a throne of 
glory, and the pomp and joy of Heaven come surging to his 
feet, then Christ says : 'This, oh transported soul, this is 
death P» 

DR. TALMAGE's METHOD OF SERMON MAKING. 

"I make most of my sermons walking the floor. I can 
always think better on my feet. I very often dictate ser- 
mons to a stenographer, and after he has written out his 
notes I read it over and by that time I have placed the sub- 
stance of it permanently in my memory. I can think bet- 
ter standing before an audience than I can in the privacy 
of my own home ; but it would be a very unsafe thing de- 
pending on the inspiration of the moment. A minister 
will not do so unless he is thoroughly lazy. My own rule 
is not to go into the pulpit or upon the platform without 
enough ideas to occupy the time usefully whether I use 



202 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.P. 

those ideas or not. Ko minister has a right to go before a . 
congregation unprepared, especially in these days, when 
through newspapers and many other forms of distribution 
of knowledge the audience may happen to know as much as 
he does. My idea is that if a man sits in his study and 
carefully writes out a theological essay it may do well for a 
review or a magazine, but it will not interest a congrega- 
tion, but no man can lay down a rule for others. Many are 
ruined for life, so far as work is concerned, by trying 
to do as others do. Extemporaneousness of speech is best 
for some and a thorough use of manuscript is decidedly 
best for others. The temptation which almost every minis- 
ter has felt who has acquired any facility in public utter- 
ance is to indolence. The extemporaneous faculty has been 
so much talked about and extolled that a great many minis- 
ters have sacrificed all their effectiveness in trying to do 
things impromptu. Unless a man uses his pen a good deal 
in the act of composition he will soon lack terseness and 
compactness of expression. I find that my best days for 
work are Wednesdays and Thursdays — equal distances from 
the Sabbath — and the morning of each day I am generally 
not observable, but it is difficult to nvake an iron rule in 
these cities as to when you will be seen and when you will 
not be seen. I think Brooklyn is a first rate place for min- 
isters. The people generally allow a pastor in these regions 
to work in his own way and the congregations are lenient 
and not unreasonable in their demands. I began my min- 
istry by writing out my sermons with great care, taking 
every manuscript into the pulpit and confining myself 
strictly to it. But coming out of a theological seminary 
with but little preparation in the way of material, I found 



tMM OF KEY. f, DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 203 



the preparation of two sermons and a lecture a week a com- 
plete physical exhaustion^ so I retracted from that habit and 
used i±o notes at all. My first experience in this new de- 
parture was marked and unusual. It was in my village 
church at Belleville, N7 J. Finding that I must stop the 
exhaustive work of preparation I resolved on a certain Sun- 
day night to extemporize. The church had ordinarily been 
lighted with lamps, as there was no gas in the village, but 
the trustees had built a gas house in the rear of the church 
and the new mode of lighting the edifice was to be tested 
on the very night I had decided to begin my extemporane- 
ous speaking. The church was thronged with people who 
had come to see the new mode of lighting. I had about ten 
minutes of my sermon in manuscript and put it down on 
the Bible, intending when the manuscript gave out to 
launch out on the great sea of extemporaneousness. Al- 
though it was a cool night, it was a very hot one for me, 
and the thermometer seemed to be about up to 120 degrees. 
At a very sluw rate I went on with my sermon, making my 
manuscript last as long as possible. Coming within three 
or four sentences of the end of what I had written and in 
great trepidation as to what would happen when I began to 
extemporize, suddenly the gas lights lowered to half their 
intended size. I said within myself, 'Oh, if the gas would 
only go out V and sure enough as I uttered the last word of 
my manuscript the lights were suddenly extinguished. I 
said, 'Brethren, it is impossible for us to proceed. Ke- 
ceive the benediction V I went home greatly relieved, feel- 
ing that I had been rescued from a great crisis, but fully 
resolved that I would break the bondage of manuscript and 
be a free man in the pulpit, and my habit has been to ex- 
temporize ever since. God has made three books for pulpit 



20± LIFE OF RET. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

texts— the book of Revelation^ the book of Nature and the 
book of Providence. All these books are inspired* Christ 
took most of His texts from the book of Nature. 'Confide? 
the lilies/ 'Behold the fowls of the air/ c Salt is good/ 'As 
a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings/ I have 
only one idea in the sermon, and that is helpfulness. Every 
man needs help, unless he be a fool. In some parts of his 
nature or in some circumstances of his life he needs rein- 
forcement. If men find a practical helpfulness in the ser- 
mon, prayers and singing of a church they will go there." 

AS AN AUTHOR AND IN" PRIVATE LIFE. ,* - 

As an author Dr.-Talmage was no less popular than as 
preachemnd lecturer. Beginning in 1872, a volume of his 
sermons has been published almost yearly, and he has writ- 
ten many other books. His sermons, originally published 
in the newspapers have been extensively printed in book 
form and widely sold. 

While living in Brooklyn Dr. Talmage's city home was 
at 1 South Oxford street. It was a fine brown stone house, 
overlooking Fort Greene, filled with rare works of art and 
w r ith precious souvenirs of travel from all parts of the earth. 
His country home was at Easthampton, L. I., where he 
delivered an address on the occasion of the two hundred 
and. fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of the town on 
August 24, 1899. Dr. Talmage married on January 22, 
1898, Mrs. Elmora McCittcheon-Collier, widow of Charles 
W. Collier, only son of Judge F. H. Collier of Pittsburg, 
Pa. The ceremony was performed at the McCutcheon 
home, in Allegheny, Pa., by the Rev. Dr. W. J. Robinson, 
pastor of the First United Presbyterian Church, 



UPH OS* RET. T. DE WITT TALMAGB, D.D. 205 



ANECDOTES OF DR. TALMAGE. 

Dr. Talmage^ view of ministerial dignity was always so 
divergent from that of the old line, black robed divines 
of the Keformed Dutch Church that it was a matter of sur- 
prise to many of his friends tint he chose that communion 
at the start of his career. One of the traditions of Herzog 
Hall Theological Seminary, in New Brunswick, where he 
graduated, runs like this : 

"Talmage was an ungainly youngster, full of originality 
as an egg is of meat, but he did not commend himself to 
the professors of the seminary as a budding clergyman. 
After he had preached his first sermon there, good old Dr. 
De Witt, the president, thought the time had come to have 
a serious talk with the young man. He took him away 
where no one else could listen to their colloquy and said: 

" 'Mr. Talmage, I never like to discourage anybody, and 
I rarely say what I am going to say to you. You are in- 
tellectually bright enough. I can easily imagine that you 
might make a success in almost any field of life except in 
preaching the gospel. But, frankly, and in all kindness, 
I must tell you that I solemnly think you have mistaken 
your calling. Get a position selling goods behind a dry 
goods counter or take a clerkship in a law office, or, if 
necessary, follow the plow, but clo not think of becoming 
the pastor of a church. You are not fitted for it at all. 
It is a great mistake for you to waste your time/ 

"Talmage simply insisted that he would go on and 
graduate. He did. And before his pulpit career wis 
ended he had preached to hundreds where the venerable Dr. 
D@ Witt bad preached to one. But those who teU the 



206 LIFE OF REV* T. DE WITT TAMEA<», ftgfc 



story down in ~ New ^Brunswick say that Dr. De Witt never 
changed his mind. He wa& not in the habit of changing 
his mind// 

The peculiar rhetorical style of Dr. Talmage can best 
be understood from an example. In one of his sermons 
in the famous series devoted to the gambling hells of Xew 
York, of which he had made a study, he electrified an audi- 
ence one Sunday morning with this climax of oratory: 

"When they bet on one number they call it a gate ! 

"When they bet on two numbers they call it a saddle ! 

"When they bet on three numbers they call it a horse ! 

"And thousands of young men get onto that gate and 
mount that saddle and ride that horse to damnation !" 

It was easy for the old style ministers to criticise that 
sort of rhetoric in the pulpit, but such expressions stuck 
in the memory of listeners, they had a decided burr-like 
quality, and those who heard Talmage once wanted to hear 
him again. 

Much was written about Dr. Talmage's trip to the Holy 
Land, and especially to his satisfied ambition to follow in 
the footsteps of his Master and baptize some one in the 
Elver Jordan. It was asserted that not finding a real 
convert he improvised one, and some jokers went so far as 
to declare that the poor Arab who was baptized thought he 
was going to be drowned by the stalwart, long-armed 
American divine, and shrieked for mercy like a good fel- 
low. But the opinion of Dr. Talmage's friends was that 
this story was manufactured out of whole cloth. 

One of the most ingenious plans to secure a wide use- 
fulness for his sermons was adopted by Dr. Talmage in 
connection with Louis Klopsch, of the Christian He redd. 
The sermons were put into type and sent out in advance 



LIFE OP RET. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 207 



to hundreds of newspapers in the United States and Can- 
nada for simultaneous publication on a given day. By this 
means readers of journals having an aggregate circulation 
of millions had before them each week vivid, thrilling 
pulpit utterances of the Brooklyn preacher. 

It was urged against this scheme that most of the news- 
papers printed the matter as telegraph, prefacing it with 
a line of introduction and a Brooklyn date, thus convey- 
ing to their readers the impression that wire tolls had been 
paid; in other words, that the paper had displayed a lot 
of enterprise in getting the matter, which impression vras 
false and misleading. The answer of Dr. Talmage's sup- 
porters was that he had never countenanced the deception, 
but that the -whole effect of the publication was good in 
spite of it. 

To newspaper men Dr. Talmage was always consider- 
ate. It was a revelation to those who had only seen him 
in the pulpit to interview him in his study. He lost en- 
tirely the fervid, aggressive, militant quality which affected 
the nerves of his listeners. He was a genial, kindly and 
-dignified man. 

But on the platform — the pulpit was only a figure of 
speech so far as he was concerned — he followed to the let- 
ter the idea of Demosthenes when, being asked to define 
what eloquence was, he said: "Action! Action! Action!" 
Dr. Talmage was always moving. His gestures were rarely 
graceful: but they always impressed his hearers. He was 
as different from Henry Ward Beecher as day from night, 
but for many years he divided with the Plymouth pastor 
the honors of being the first clerical orator in Brooklyn and 
in the world, 



308 Mil 'OT HIT. T. Dl WITT TALMAOE, B.& J 

THH MODE OF WORSHIP AS CARRIED ON BY HIM. 




The mode of worship exemplified in all his churches 
could not be more direct and unceremonial. As a specta- 
cle there could be nothing more imposing that that mode 
in action. All of the thousands sat within an equal view, 
and had an equal view. The acoustic qualities of all the 
auditoriums were perfect. Every word in whispered ca- 
dence from the platform could be heard as distinctly as 
the loudest tones. The order of service was like unto that 
in all wholly non-liturgical Protestant churches. The first 
thing done was to sing the Doxology* The mighty organ 
played immortal Old Hundred graphically enough to syl- 
lable every word to the ear. A precentor stood on the 
platform. The people arose en masse and then God was 
praised from whom all blessings flow — praised, it really 
sounded and seemed, by all creatures here below. In vol- 
ume the singing was, not inaptly, but rather singularly, 
called a new Long Island Sound. In culture, expressiveness 
and adaptation of tone to sentiment the organ and the 
people harmonized finely. The best possibilities of congre- 
gational singing were there realities. Then followed the 
Lord's Prayer, and after it the reading of the scripture 
lesson, and that the pastor expounded, illustrated, en- 
forced, as he proceeded. His remarks were distinguished 
by freshness, fervor, most incisive appositeness and an 
affluence of imagery, as well as by a continuous quantity 
of keen, practical common sense that made the scripture 
reading the string on which many sermons in epitome 
were hung. The reading of the scriptures was as marked 
a feature as the sermons, and the effect unlike anything 
in any other church. Some grand old hymn> may be "Rock 



tlFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 209 



of r Ages/> "A Charge to Keep I Have," or "Show Pity, 
Lord," or some other grand classic of the church, was sung 
by everybody. Dr. Talmage would have all sing. On one 
occasion he said, as he gave out the second hymn, "My 
brethren, if I thought you would sing this hymn no better 
than you did the first, I would go into the side room and 
wait till you get through. Let it be the grandest song this 
side of heaven." The prayer followed, in which the pas- 
tor carried his own wants and those of his people, his 
country, and the church straight to the throne. The 
graphicness of it was the intense recital of human needs. 
The fervor of it was the supreme appreciation of divine 
fullness. The simplicity of it was the childlike certainty 
of answer then and there. The vehemence of it was the 
awful consciousness of souls unsaved and unconcerned. 
The triumph of it was a literal loss of self in the over- 
powering realization of Christ's love and boundless bounty 
and beauty. Another hymn, all singing as if the gates 
above were opened for those within, to catch the song of 
those below ; and then the sermon. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE FUNERAL SERVICES IX WASHINGTON — WORDS OF 
EULOGY HEARD BY A THRONG OF 1,500 — PRESIDENT SENDS 
TRIBUTE — WREATH OF LILIES FROM THE WHITE HOUSE 
AMONG THE FLORAL OFFERINGS — LIFE-LONG FRIENDS OF 
THE GREAT RELIGIOUS LEADER PAID ELOQUENT AND LOV- 
ING TRIBUTE TO MEMORY OF THE DEPARTED PREACHER. 

Washington paid her last tribute to T. De Witt Tal- 
mage, when 1,500 of her citizens attended the impressive 
funeral services of the eminent religious leader, which were 
held in the Church of the Covenant. That the great 
pulpit orator was esteemed, loved, and honored in this 
city could not be doubted, when one gazed on the sor- 
rowing faces of the men and women of Washington who 
listened, often with tears in their eyes, to the eulogies 
paid the dead clergyman by men who had been his closest 
friends for the past quarter of a century. 

The funeral ceremonies were announced to begin at 5 
o'clock, but long before that time the crowd began to gather 
without the church. Fully 2,000 people had collected on 
the sidewalk in front of the church when the doors were 
opened at 4 :45 o'clock. The building was filled instantly, 
and many were unable to gain entrance. 

At 4:45 o'clock the hearse containing the body of Dr. 
Talmage was driven solemnly up to the church door, fol- 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 211 



lowed by carriages containing his family. With difficulty 
a passageway through the crowd at the door was made 
and the funeral procession proceeded into the church. 
As the casket entered, Organist Harvey Murray began the 
"Dead March" from Saul, which continued until the body 
lay in state before the altar. Dr. Teunis Hamlin, the pas- 
tor of the church, headed the procession down the aisle, 
followed by the honorary pallbearers, who were as fol- 
lows: Mr. Justice Harlan, Mr. Justice Brewer, Senator 
Dolliver, Senator Burrows, Senator Cullom, ex-Secretary 
John W. Foster, Mr. B. H. Warner, Eev. Dr. Bittinger, 
Dr. G. K Magruder, Eev. Dr. Fiske, Mr. E. M. Branch, 
Mr. F. M. Lawrence, and Dr. Louis Klopsch, of Xew York 
City. The casket was followed by the Talmage family, 
as follows: Mrs. Talmage, leaning upon the arm of Rev. 
Frank De Witt Talmage, of Chicago ; Mr. and Mrs. Clar- 
ence L. Wyckoff, the latter the bride of a week, and the 
youngest daughter of Dr. Talmage; Mr, and Mrs. Daniel 
Mangam, Xew York City ; Mr. and Mrs. Allan E. Donnau, 
Eichmond, Ya. ; Mr. and Mrs. Warren G. Smith, Brooklyn, 
N. Y., and Miss Talmage, Washington. 

FLOWERS FROZtf THE PRESIDENT. 

The floral offerings, all of which had been placed on 
and about the chancel rail, were profuse and beautiful. 
Fully a dozen large pieces were sent, all by friends of Dr. 
Talmage and of the family. A large, beautiful wreath of 
lilies was sent by President Eoosevelt. The lid of the 
casket was studded with English violets. 

No sermon was preached, the services consisting of 
music and addresses by friends of Dr. Talmage. Dr. 
Hamlin conducted the ceremonies. The music was fur- 



212 LIFE GE RET. f. D% WITT TALLAGE, D.B. 



nished by the male choir of the church, consisting of Mr. 
William McFarland, first tenor; Mr. Perry Turpin, second 
tenor; Mr. Frank Reeside, barytone, and Mr. Walter 
Humphrey, bass. Mr. Harvey Murray was at the organ. 

As soon as the casket had been placed on its supports 
and the family of Dr. Talmage and the pallbearers had 
taken seats, the choir sang "Lead, Kindly Light/' after 
which Dr. Hamlin read the Presbyterian funeral service. 
At its conclusion he spoke briefly of the life and character 
of Dr. Talmage, saying : 

"For the past thirty years Dr. Talmage has been known 
everywhere in the world that English is read, as the great- 
est preacher of his time. Beecher and Spurgeon stand out 
as great preachers of the last century, but the sermons of 
Dr. Talmage were read more widely than either of these. 
He was a genius and poet in imagination, having a wonder- 
ful ability to paint his magnificent thoughts for both the 
reader and the listener. His human kindness and feeling, 
his knowledge of human hearts, made him able to touch 
whoever read his sermons or listened to him speak/' 

THE LOSS TO THE WORLD. 

Following Dr. Hamlin was Dr. James Demarest, of 
Brooklyn, Y., who said : 

"Has this great heart really ceased to beat? Has his 
expressive face really become immobile ? Have those strong 
fingers become las and lifeless? It seems impossible, yet 
it is true. When this enormous fact dawns on the mind, 
it causes a great surging of thought, which is followed by 
intense sorrow: a sorrow deep and heartfelt for the great 
void which has been created. 

"Think how wide is that void ! Think how deep is that 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 213 



Toid! Think, that the wonderful sermons which used to 
go into every home, to bring comfort and happiness and 
relief to the aching and sorrowing hearts, will never be 
known again; but remember, that although Dr. Talmage 
is gone, his influence remains. Still we have the memory 
of him, and the knowledge that he once lived, and thSse 
are thoughts which will never perish. 

"In years past it has given me the greatest pleasure to 
defend Dr. Talmage from certain aspersions which were 
cast upon him. I knew Dr. Talmage intimately, and feel 
that I understood his character as perhaps few people did. 
From his earliest life I positively know that he worked 
with one aim, one controlling influence before him. That 
influence was his sincerity in preaching the gospel as he 
believed God intended it should be preached. Any criti- 
cisms which may have been heaped upon him were unjust, 
because throughout his life he was sincere and honest in 
his convictions. He served God as he believed God in- 
tended he should serve." 

DR. VAN DYKE'S TRIBUTE. 

Rev. Dr. Van Dyke then delivered a striking eulogy of 
the dead minister. He said in part: 

"The world-wide reputation of Dr. Talmage will no 
longer have its expression in present achievements, but his 
memory will still live. 

"He has sometimes in his career been criticised because 
he was sensational. But he had to be sensational to hold 
the attention to the word of God of thousands of people 
who would otherwise not have listened 'to it. 

"His later life was merely the unfolding of the sterling 
qualities he had so often shown in his younger days. H* 



214 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

vras never spoiled by the great reputation he had won. He 
was a man thoroughly consecrated to his work. His one 
great aim was to serve the God whose word he preached. 
His aim was to advance the kingdom of God. 

"A great man has fallen. We mourn for him. Who 
will take his place? Yet death has gained a barren vic- 
tory over this magnificent minister of God. We thought 
he had many years before him, but, alas, he was stricken 
before the slightest signs of decay were manifested in his 
wonderful powers. But he has gone to a nobler and greater 
life — a life which he ever held up as a prize invaluable 
before the eyes of men. 

"For him to die was Christ. A crown of great glory 
has been placed upon his brow." 

A TOUCHING EULOGY. 

The most touching and powerful eulogy of the service 
was made by the Eev. Thomas Chalmers Easton. He told 
simply of the great man of God as he had seen and known 
him intimately during the better part of his life. He 
said: 

"Not until we compress the ocean into a dew drop will 
it be possible for us to condense all that is due this great 
dead minister into one brief hour's telling. 

"While great men are with us to lead our armies, man- 
age the affairs of state, and charm us with the magic power 
of their pens we are apt to lose sight of the men them- 
selves. But when death comes — what a revelation ! Then 
we see them in their proper light and come to weigh their 
worth and our own need of them. 

"How solemn and great was the shock that thrilled - 
through the whole of America and Europe last Saturday 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



215 



night when the telegraphic wires sounded out the astound- 
ing message : 

" 'Talmage is dead/ 

"We only knew that he was sick a few weeks. We were 
wont to look upon him as a tall, giant oak, one of the most 
magnificent specimens of his kind. He was one of the 
most striking characters of the nineteenth century. His 
inmost acts could be examined without causing the slight- 
est blush. Xo name that appears on the page of history 
contains so much human sweetness as that of Dr. Tal- 
mage. In the hospital, in the humblest home, on the bat- 
tlefield,, my friend was known as" one of the foremost com- 
forters of men, by his matchless genius and application 
of the power of God. 

"Once only did I ever see him burst forth into a white 
heat of rage, and that was when he had been persecuted 
most unjustly, and dishonorably, month after month, and 
the work of his master assailed. 

SPIRIT OF PHILANTHROPY. 

"He was great in his spirit of philanthropy. He gave 
largely, but he gave silently. He gave thousands and 
thousands, but no name was attached. He was sometimes 
criticised for not being more liberal. But his accusers 
were without a knowledge of his work. He performed 
his duty, as God showed him the way. silently. 

"It took the man nearly seventy years to live, but only 
a few hours to die. 

"The last words that came from his lips as he lay on his 
bed, fast sinking into the great valley, were the three 
words, as he gazed, into the face of his wife, 'Eleanor, 
Eleanor^ Eleanor/ 



216 LIFE OF EE?. T. DE WITT TALltAGE, D.D. 



"The three greatest preachers of the century were 
Beecher, Spurgeon and Talniage. But the prince of pul- 
pit workers for the glory of God was Talmage. He ex- 
celled in the power to reach out and hold the great masses 
for Christ. 

"Heaven has seen some mighty days, but the day this 
great God-like giant went iiome to a well-earned rest, was 
one of its greatest days. As I knelt by the bedside of my 
dying comrade, I seemed to hear the angels shouting : 

ke W0 done, thou good and faithful servant; well 
doneF" 

FROM A LIFE-LOXG FRIEND. 

Following Dr. Easton was Dr. S. J. Nichols, of Brook- 
lyn. Dr. Xichols knew Dr. Talmage nearly all his life, 
and from almost boyhood had been his warm personal 
friend. He said: 

"Wherever English is spoken or read, there have gone 
Dr. Talmage's sermons. Messages of comfort, love, and 
relief have gone from him to tens of thousands of homes, 
and have become household words. And these homes I 
speak of are as great in variety as were the oratorical 
powers of the beloved minister. 

"Every one read his sermons. In the railroad shops of 
Pennsylvania they were pored over during the noon hour. 
In the hovel of the poor and in the mansion of the rich 
Dr. Talniage's sermons were eagerly sought every week, 
and it is in these places, as well as here, in this beautiful 
church, that his death is keenly regretted, and that heart- 
felt sorrow is demonstrated. 

"Whatever criticism there was of Dr. Talmage, it must 
jaever be forgotten that he preached the gospel, not the 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 217 



philosophies, the ideas, the thoughts, or the whims of men. 
He spoke with conviction, and preached the gospel of 
love, hope,, and kindness to lost men. 

DARED TO BE SINGULAR. 

"He dared to be singular/' he said, "like the prophets 
of old, to turn the attention of men to God. 

"The greatest of all his powers was his faith, a faith 
planted close to the throne of God. With the power of the 
Almighty behind him, he never despaired of men or 
society." 

At the conclusion of Dr. Xichols' address, the choir sang 
"It is well with My Soul." Dr. Hamlin offered a fervent 
prayer, after which the family and pall-bearers passed out 
of the rear door of the building, the others present re- 
maining seated. Organist Murray closed the services by 
playing Chopin's "Funeral March." 

THE LAST LOOK. 

At the conclusion of the services, which lasted more than 
an hour, those present who desired to take the last look 
at the dead preacher were invited forward. Dr. Hamlin 
was surprised to learn that a great crowd still lingered 
without, exjecting to enter the church and look again 
on the face of the great preacher at t : ie conclusion of the 
services. It was arranged that the public pass up the 
north aisle of the building and down the south aisle, leav- 
ing by the south door. As soon as those who had been p 
the church viewed the body, the north door was opened and 
others were permitted to enter. The body remains! at 
the church until 10 o'clock, where it wa^ viewed by thou- 
sands of people during the evening. At 10 o'clock u 
taken to the Pennsylvania station. 



CHAPTER XVIL 



THE BURIAL IX GREEXWOOD CEMETERY, . BROOKLYX- — 
BODY OE THE FAMOUS CLERGYVLAX BURIED WITH SIMPLE 

CEREALOXIES HUXDREDS AROUXD THE PLOT THE OXLY 

SPEAKER WAS THE REV. HOWARD SUYDAM, OF RHIXE- 
BECK, A VERY OLD ERIEXD OF DR, TALLAGE, 

To rest in the city where he did the greatest part of his 
conspicuous work, and where he gained world wide fame 
as a great preacher, the remains were brought from Wash- 
ington and were interred in Greenwood Cemetery. Be- 
tween his two dead wives and near the twenty year old 
son who bore his Christian name the world renowned min- 
ister now lies, his eloquent tongue silenced forever, and his 
brilliant and trenchant pen fallen forever from his grasp. 

The millions of people in all parts of the civilized world 
who for many years have read his weekly sermons mourned 
to-day in their widely separated homes with the few hun- 
dreds of his friends, acquaintances and admirers who 
gathered at the small plot in Greenwood. 

Xo funeral services were held in Brooklyn. Be- 
side the burial service only a few words were spoken 
at the graveside by an almost life-long friend of the dead 
man. Many thought that some funeral service would be 
held at one of the Brooklyn churches, but the Bev. Frank 
Talmage, of Chicago, son of Dr. Talmage, to whom the 
decision in regard to this matter was left, decided that 



LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 



819 



there should be only the burial service, supplemented by a 
few words from the man whom the deceased had desired 
in his lifetime should help officiate at his funeral. This 
man, the Kev. Dr. Howard Suydarn, of Khinebeck, N. Y., 
was unable to reach Washington in time for the funeral. 

The crowd began gathering at the Talmage plot in 
Greenwood shortly before 9 o'clock. Between three and 
four hundre 1 persons had reached there when the funeral 
cortege arrived a few minutes past 10. The majority of 
those present were women. There were many in the small 
assemblage who had known Dr. Talmage intimately dur- 
ing his residence in this city, and a number of them had 
heen associated with him in some way in his work here. 

There is no simpler burial plot in Greenwood than 
the Talmage plot, which lies about four hundred yards 
from the Franklin entrance to the cemetery. Around it are 
tall grave stones, monuments, memorial designs and great 
tombs and mausoleums. The Talmage plot is marked at 
present by three plain marble slabs and a small dogwood 
tree shades the center. To the extreme left is the grave of 
T. De Witt Talmage, Jr., who died at the age of twenty 
while preparing for the law, and next to this is the grave 
of the second wife of Dr. Talmage, who died August 5, 
1896. She was Susan C. Whittmore. Upon the slab at 
the head of her grave are the words. "She lived for others. " 

On the right, with a space for one grave intervening, 
is the resting place of the first wife of the distinguished 
divine, who was before her marriage Mary R. Avery. 
She died June ?, 1881. Her tombstone is marked with the 
inscription, "Thoroughly furnished unto all good work-." 
Dr. Talmage was buried in the space intervening betw. 
the graves of his wives. 



220 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALLAGE, D»J>. 



The remains of Dr. Talmage were brought to Jersey City 
in the funeral car of the Pennsylvania railroad in which 
President McKinley's body was carried to Canton. 

The funeral party from Washington followed the body 
in carriages. This party consisted of Mrs. Eleanor Tal- 
mage, widow of Dr. Talmage; the Eev. Frank Talmage, 
pastor of the Jefferson Park Presbyterian Church, in Chi- 
cago; Mr. and Mrs. Warren H. Smith, of Brooklyn, son- 
in-law and daughter of Dr. Talmage ; Mrs. Edith Donnan, 
of Bichmond, daughter of Dr. Talmage; Mr. and Mrs. 
Daniel Mangam, son-in-law and daughter of Dr. Talmage ; 
Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Wyckoff, of Utica, X. Y., son-in- 
law and daughter of the deceased ; Miss Collier, Mrs. 
Tahnage's daughter; T. McCutcheon, a relative; the Eev. 
Howard Suydam, of Ehinebeck, X. Y. ; Dr. Louis Klopsch, 
proprietor of the Christian Herald; F. M. Lawrence and 
E. H. Branch, members of the old board of directors of 
the Brooklyn Tabernacle; the Eev. James Demorest, of 
Brooklyn, and the Eev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers Easton, of 
Washington. 

At the grave before the arrival of the funeral party 
there had gathered a number of members of the Brooklyn 
Tabernacle Sunday School Teachers' and Officers' Associa- 
tion, the only organization of the Talmage Tabernacle 
still kept alive, and several members of the old board of 
directors of the Tabernacle. The Christian Herald, of 
which Dr. Talmage has been editor for over ten years, 
was represented by a delegation of fifty, headed by George 
H. Sandison and B. J. Fernie, associate editors, and the 
Bowery Mission, of which the deceased was one of the in- 
corporators, was also represented. P. B. Broiufield was 
present from the Nassau Presbytery. 



LITE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALLAGE, D.D. 221 



The four daughters of Dr. Taluiage wore deep mourning 
and heavy veils. His youngest daughter, Maude, who was 
married only a week ago, was present with her husband, in 
mourning. These members of the family stood at the 
foot of the grave while the burial service was in progress. 

The casket which held Dr. Talmage's remains was cov- 
ered with fine black English broadcloth. On a solid silver 
plate on the lid was the inscription : 

THOMAS DE WITT TALMAGE. 
January 7, 1832- — April 12, 1902. 

A heavy pall of .violets covered the lid of the casket. 
Around it were numerous floral offerings of varying designs. 
Among these were tributes from Dr. Talmage's former 
associates in religious work here, his co-workers on the 
Christian Herald, and from the President and Mrs. Koose- 
yelt. The offering of Mr. and Mrs. Eoosevelt was a beautiful 
wreath of lilies and ivy. The largest design was a cross of 
roses, ivy and laurel, sent by the Christian Herald, The 
Brooklyn Tabernacle Sunday School Teachers' and Offi- 
cers' Association and the surviving directors of the Brook- 
lyn Tabernacle sent beautiful designs, as did also a num- 
ber of admirers of the distinguished preacher in Brooklyn 
and elsewhere. 

The Episcopal burial service was read at the grave. 
Preceding this service, the Eev. Dr. Howard Suydam, who 
officiated, made a brief address. He said: 

"We have gathered here to lay to rest the mortal remains 
of Dr. T. De Witt Talmage. The whole Christian world 
mourns his departure. In the rural home of his child- 



222 LIFE OF REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, 1>.D. 

hood, in the churches where he was pastor/ and through- 
out the world there is mourning to-day. The world feels 
lonely became he has gone. There is a great vacancy ap- 
parent. Viewed from our standpoint, we do not see how 
it can be filled. He was a man whose high and noble pur- 
pose seemed to compass the whole earth. He, by his voice 
and pen, reached more people than any other man has 
reached. Twenty million people, it is estimated, read his 
written sermons each week. What a power ! These people 
will not forget him. Well may we regret his departure ! 
Well may the people mourn that they will not look upon 
his face again. 

"He has gone, but he has gone home. The words spoken 
by him whose trumpet is now silenced and penned by him 
whose hand is now palsied, will live on. Everywhere are 
his converts. His field was the world. More than any man 
of his generation, more than any man of his lifetime, the 
thoughts of his great brain reached the multitudes. We 
mif* him, but they greet him in that mansion and heavenly 
home prepared for God's children. We shall see him again 
face to face. If he were here now, his wish would be not 
that we shed our tears, but that we should sing of the tri- 
umph to come. This is our hope, this is our expectation. 
This also is the hope of her who is widowed, and of them 
who are orphaned. 

"Brooklyn, indeed, has cause to mourn his departure. 
Brooklyn will always cherish with pride the influence he 
exerted for the Christian good." 

THE EKD, , 



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